ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 


BY 


CHAKLES  A.  CONANT 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  IQOI,  BY  CHARLES  A.  CONANT 
ALL  RIGHTS   RESERVED 


Published  October,  zqor 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  YOUTH  AND  EARLY  SERVICES    ...  1 

TL  THE  FIGHT  FOR  THE  CONSTITUTION      .  22 

HI.  ESTABLISHING  THE  PUBLIC  CREDIT  .  .      47 

^IV.  CONGRESS  SUSTAINS  HAMILTON       .        .  63 

"**  V.  STRENGTHENING  THE  BONDS  OF  UNION  .      76 

VI.  FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  AND  NEUTRALITY     .  100 

VII.  HAMILTON  AS  A  PARTY  LEADER       .  .    118 

VIII.  HAMILTON'S  DEATH  AND  CHARACTER    .  135 


227636 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 


YOUTH   AND   EARLY   SERVICES 

THE  life  of  Alexander  Hamilton  is  an 
essential  chapter  in  the  story  of  the  forma- 
tion of  the  American  Union.  Hamilton's 
work  was  of  that  constructive  sort  which  is 
vital  for  laying  the  foundations  of  new 
states.  Whether  the  Union  would  have 
been  formed  under  the  Constitution  and 
would  have  been  consolidated  into  a  power- 
ful nation,  instead  of  a  loose  confederation 
of  sovereign  states,  without  the  great  services 
of  Hamilton,  is  one  of  those  problems  about 
which  speculation  is  futile.  It  is  certain  that 
the  conditions  of  the  time  presented  a  rare 
opportunity  for 'such  a  man  as  Hamilton,  and 
that  without  some  directing  and  organizing 
genius  like  his,  the  consolidation  of  the 


HAMILTON 


Union  must   have  been  delayed,  and  have 
been  accomplished  with  much  travail. 

The  difference  between  the  career  of 
Hamilton  in  America  and  that  of  the  two 
greatest  organizing  minds  of  other  countries 
—  Caesar  and  Napoleon  —  marks  the  differ- 
ence between  Anglo-Saxon  political  ideals 
and  capacity  for  self-government  and  those 
of  other  races.  Where  the  organization  of 
a  strong  government  degenerated  in  Rome 
and  France  into  absolutism,  it  tended  in 
America,  under  the  directing  genius  of 
Hamilton,  to  place  in  the  hands  of  the  peo- 
ple a  more  powerful  instrument  for  execut- 
ing their  own  will.  \  So  powerful  a  weapon 
was  thus  created  that  Hamilton  himself  be- 
came alarmed  when  it  was  seized  by  the 
hands  of  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  other 
democratic  leaders  as  the  instrument  of 
democratic  ideas,  and  those  long  strides 
were  taken  in  the  states  and  under  the  fed- 
eral government  which  wiped  out  the  distinc- 
tions between  classes,'  abolished  the  relations 
of  church  and  state,  extended  the  suffrage, 
and  made  the  government  only  the  servant 
of  the  popular  will. 


YOUTH  AND  EARLY  SERVICES    3 

The  development  of  two  principles  marked  V 
the  early  history  of  the  Republic,  —  one,  the 
growth  of  sentiment  for  the  Union  under  the  . 
inspiration  of  Hamilton  and  the  Federalist 
party ;  the  other,  the  growth  of  the  power  of 
the  masses,  typified  by  the  leadership  of  Jef- 
ferson and  the  Democratic  party.  These 
two  tendencies,  seemingly  hostile  in  many 
of  their  aspects,  waxed  in  strength  together 
until  they  became  the  united  and  guiding 
principles  of  a  new  political  order,  —  a 
nation  of  giant  strength  whose  power  rests 
upon  the  will  of  all  the  people.  It  was  the 
steady  progress  of  these  two  principles  in 
the  heart  of  the  American  people  which  in 
"  the  fullness  of  time  "  made  it  possible  for 
the  Union  to  be  preserved  as  a  union  of  free 
men  under  a  free  constitution.  .To  Hamil- 
ton, the  creator  of  the  machinery  of  the 
Union,  and  to  John  Marshall,  the  great 
Chief  Justice,  who  interpreted  the  Constitu- 
tion as  Hamilton  would  have  had  him  do, 
in  favor  of  the  powers  of  the  Union,  this 
result  was  largely  due. 

If  Caesar,  fighting  the  battles  of  Rome  on 


4  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

the  frontier  of  Germany,  and  kept  from 
party  quarrels  at  home,  and  Napoleon,  born 
outside  of  France  and  free  by  his  campaign 
in  Egypt  from  the  compromising  intrigues 
of  Parisian  politics,  were  preeminently  fitted 
by  these  accidents  to  transmute  the  spirit 
of  revolution  from  chaos  into  order,  Hamil- 
ton stood  in  somewhat  the  same  position  in 
America.  Born  in  the  little  island  of  Nevis 
in  the  West  Indies  (January  11,  1757),  he 
came  to  the  United  States  when  his  mind 
was  already  mature,  in  spite  of  his  fifteen 
years.  He  came  without  the  local  preju- 
dices or  state  pride  which  influenced  so  many 
of  the  Revolutionary  leaders,  and  was  there- 
fore peculiarly  qualified  to  fasten  his  eyes 
steadfastly  upon  the  single  end  of  the  crea- 
tion of  a  nation  rather  than  the  ascendency 
of  any  single  state.  He  was  so  free  from 
local  attachments  that  he  even  hesitated  at 
first  on  which  side  he  should  cast  his  lot, 
—  whether  with  the  imperial  government  of 
Great  Britain,  which  appealed  strongly  to 
his  love  of  system  and  organized  power,  or 
with  the  struggling  revolutionists,  with  their 


YOUTH  AND  EARLY  SERVICES   5 

poor  and  undisciplined  army  and  uncertain 
future.  The  possibility  of  winning  distinc- 
tion in  the  service  of  Great  Britain  must 
have  attracted  him,  but  the  justice  of  the 
colonial  cause  spoke  more  strongly  to  his 
sense  of  right  and  his  well-ordered  mind. 

The  great  services  of  Hamilton  were 
nearly  all  performed  before  he  was  forty 
years  of  age.  His  precocity  was  partly 
derived  from  his  birth  in  the  tropics  and 
partly,  perhaps,  from  the  unfortunate  condi- 
tions of  his  early  life.  A  mystery  Ijangs 
over  his  birth  and  parentage,  which  repeated 
inquiries  have  failed  to  clear  away.  He 
is  believed  to  have  been  the  son  of  James 
Hamilton,  a  Scottish  merchant  of  Nevis,  and 
a  lady  of  French  Hugenot  descent,  the  di- 
vorced wife  of  a  Dane  named  Lavine.  But 
the  history  of  his  parents  and  their  mar- 
riage is  shrouded  in  much  obscurity.  The 
father,  although  reduced  to  poverty,  lived 
nearly  if  not  quite  as  long  as  his  illustrious 
son,  but  the  mother  was  reported  to  have 
died  while  Hamilton  was  only  a  child,  leav- 
ing the  memory  of  her  beauty  and  charm 


6  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

in  one  of  the  chambers  of  his  infant  mind. 
Hamilton  sought  in  his  later  years  to  estab- 
lish regular  communication  with  his  father, 
and  he  had  a  brother  in  the  West  Indies 
with  whom  he  corresponded  ;  but  the  fact 
that  all  these  relatives  remained  so  much  in 
the  background  gave  some  color  to  the  slan- 
ders of  his  enemies  concerning;  his  birth. 

To  offset  the  disadvantages  of  birth,  Ham- 
ilton had  neither  the  fascinating  manners 
which  go  straight  to  the  hearts  of  men,  nor 
the  imposing  personal  presence  which  in  the 
orator  often  invests  trifling  platitudes  with 
sonorous  dignity.  He  was  possessed  of  a  light 
and  well-made  frame,  and  was  erect  and  dig- 
nified hi  bearing,  but  was  much  below  the 
average  height.  His  friends  were  wont  to 
call  him  "  the  little  lion,"  because  of  the 
vigor  and  dignity  of  his  speech.  He  had 
the  advantage  of  a  head  finely  shaped,  large 
and  symmetrical.  His  complexion  was  fair, 
his  cheeks  were  rosy,  and  in  spite  of  a  rather 
large  nose  his  face  was  considered  hand- 
some. His  dark,  deep-set  eyes  were  lighted 
in  debate  with  a  fire  which  controlled  great 


YOUTH  AND  EARLY  SERVICES   7 

audiences  and  -cowed  his  enemies.  But  it 
was  chiefly  the  power  of  pure  intellect  which 
gave  him  control  over  the  minds  of  other 
men.  There  was  nothing  mean  or  low  in 
his  character,  but  he  had  not  a  high  opinion 
of  the  average  of  humanity,  and  therefore 
lacked  somewhat  in  that  ready  sympathy 
with  the  minds  of  others  which  is  so  useful 
to  politicians  and  party  leaders. 

Hamilton  was  early  thrown  upon  his  own 
resources.  His  father  became  a  bankrupt, 
and  he  was  cared  for  by  his  mother's  rela- 
tives. His  education  was  aided  by  the  Rev. 
Hugh  Knox,  a  Presbyterian  clergyman, 
with  whom  Hamilton  kept  up  an  affection- 
ate correspondence  in  later  years.  The  boy 
was  only  thirteen  years  of  age  when  he  was 
placed  in  the  office  of  Nicholas  Cruger,  a 
West  Indian  merchant.  Here  his  self-reli- 
ance and  methodical  habits  made  him  master 
of  the  business  and  head  of  the  establishment 
when  his  employer  had  occasion  to  be  away. 
His  remarkable  capacity,  and  his  occasional 
writings  for  the  daily  press,  led  to  a  deter- 
mination by  his  relatives  and  friends  to  send 


8 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 


him  to  a  wider  field.  He  was  accordingly 
supplied  with  funds  and  sent  to  Boston, 
where  he  arrived  in  October,  1772,  still  less 
than  sixteen  years  of  age.  He  was  fortu- 
nately provided  with  some  strong  letters  of 
recommendation  from  Dr.  Knox,  and  was 
soon  at  a  grammar  school  at  Elizabethtown, 
N.  J.,  where  he  made  rapid  progress.  He 
desired  to  enter  Princeton,  but  his  project  of 
going  through  the  courses  as  rapidly  as  he 
could,  without  regard  to  the  regular  classes, 
was  in  conflict  with  the  rules.  He  therefore 
turned  to  King's  College,  New  York,  now 
Columbia  University,  where  he  was  able, 
with  the  aid  of  a  private  tutor,  to  pursue  his 
studies  in  the  manner  which  he  wished. 

The  decision  of  Hamilton  to  take  the  side 
of  the  colonies  in  the  conflict  with  England 
was  made  early  in  1774,  partly  as  the  result 
of  a  visit  to  Boston.  Among  the  well-to-do 
classes  of  New  York,  the  dominant  feeling 
was  in  favor  of  Great  Britain,  and  the  con- 
trol of  the  Assembly  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  friends  of  the  Crown.  Hamilton  found 
Boston  the  hotbed  of  resistance  to  England, 


YOUTH  AND  EARLY  SERVICES   9 

and  listened  attentively  to  the  reasoning  by 
which  the  "  strong  prejudices  on  the  min- 
isterial side,"  which  he  himself  declares  he 
had  formed,  gave  way  to  "  the  superior  force 
of  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  colonial 
claims."  The  opportunity  soon  came  for  him 
to  make  public  proclamation  of  his  position. 
A  great  meeting  was  held  in  the  "  Fields  "  l 

(July  6,  1774),  tn  jnrPP  tliP  Tmnr|  nf  fl^  TWy 

Assembly  in  the  matter  of  joining  the  other 
colonies  in  calling  a  Congress.  Hamilton 
attended,  and  after  listening  to  the  speeches 
was  so  strongly  impressed  with  what  was  left 
unsaid  that  he  worked  his  way  to  the  plat- 
form and  began  an  impassioned  argument 
for  the  colonial  side.  Below  the  normal 
stature  and  of  slender  form,  he  looked  even 
younger  than  his  seventeen  years,  but  was 
recognized  by  the  crowd  as  a  collegian  and  /c~>/  t 
received  with  great  enthusiasm.  &&4J  / 

/"Hamilton  was  soon  at  the  forefront  of  the  $-iS 

300 /H 

1  The  "  Fields  "  of  that  day  occupied  what  is  now  City  Jt  A  il 
Hall  Park,  then  the  upper  limit  of  New  York.     King's   *" 
College  was  in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  the  name 
still  lingering  in  College  Place. 


10  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

fight  for  civil  liberty,  which  was  carried  on 
by  means  of  pamphlets  and  newspaper  ad- 
dresses. His  papers,  which  appeared  with- 
out signature,  showed  so  much  ability  that 
they  were  attributed  to  the  most  eminent 
of  the  patriot  leaders.  After  the  die  was 
cast  at  Lexington  for  armed  conflict,  Ham- 
ilton early  in  1776  received  the  command 
of  a  company  of  artillery.  Its  thorough 
discipline  attracted  the  favorable  notice  of 
Greene  and  other  leaders.  Greene  intro- 
duced Hamilton  to  Washington,  who  had 
early  occasion,  in  the  disastrous  battle  of 
Long  Island,  when  Hamilton  protected  the 
rear  with  great  coolness  and  courage,  to 
measure  the  mettle  of  his  young  artillery 
officer. 

Washington  on  March  1,  1777,  offered 
Hamilton  the  rank  of  Lieutenant-Colonel 
on  his  staff.  In  this  position  Hamilton  found 
congenial  occupation  for  his  pen  in  the 
great  mass  of  letters,  reports,  and  procla- 
mations which  issued  from  headquarters. 
These  communications,  many  of  which  still 
survive,  while  bearing  the  impress  of  Wash- 


YOUTH  AND  EAELY  SERVICES      11 

ington's  clear,  directing  mind,  bear  also  the 
mark  of  the  skill  and  logic  of  the  younger 
man.  Hamilton  rendered  valuable  service 
after  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne,  in  persuad- 
ing Gates  to  detach  a  part  of  his  forces  to 
aid  Washington.  On  this  occasion,  although 
he  had  in  his  pocket  a  positive  order  from 
Washington,  he  displayed  a  tact  and  diplo- 
matic skill  which  were  unusual  in  his  deal- 
ings with  men.  It  fell  to  the  lot  of  Hamil- 
ton to  meet  Andre  while  a  prisoner  in  the 
hands  of  the  Americans,  and  his  letters 
regarding  the  affair  to  Miss  Schuyler,  who 
afterwards  became  his  wife,  are  among  the 
most  interesting  contributions  to  this  pa- 
thetic episode  of  Revolutionary  history. 

Hamilton's  quarrel  with  Washington, 
about  which  much  has  been  written,  came 
after  nearly  four  years'  service  over  a  trivial 
delay  in  obeying  a  call  from  the  General. 
Washington  rebuked  his  aide  for  disrespect, 
to  which  Hamilton  hotly  retorted,  "  I  am 
not  conscious  of  it,  sir  ;  but  since  you  have 
thought  it,  we  part."  Washington  endeav- 
ored to  prevent  the  execution  of  his  project, 


12  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

but  Hamilton  would  not  be  reconciled  and 
returned  to  service  in  the  line.  He  led  his 
men  with  great  impetuosity  upon  one  of  the 
British  redoubts  at  Yorktown,  and  carried 
the  position  in  ten  minutes,  with  much  more 
promptness  than  the  French,  to  whom  the 
other  redoubt  had  been  assigned. 

While  the  war  was  still  in  progress  Ham- 
ilton was  looking  ahead  with  the  construc- 
tive genius  which  afterwards  found  such 
wide  opportunities  in  the  cabinet  of  Wash- 
ington. He  addressed  a  letter  in  1780  to 
Duane,  a  member  of  Congress,  in  which  he 
made  a  remarkable  analysis  of  the  defects 
of  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  urged  that 
Congress  should  be  clothed  with  complete 
sovereignty,  and  made  suggestions  regarding 
its  powers  which  were  afterwards  embodied 
to  a  large  extent  in  the  Constitution.  He 
addressed  an  anonymous  letter  to  Eobert 
Morris  early  in  the  same  year,  treating  of 
the  financial  affairs  of  the  confederacy.  He 
discussed  carefully  the  paper  currency  and 
the  causes  of  its  depreciation,  and  proposed 
to  restore  soundness  to  the  finances  by  grad- 


YOUTH  AND  EARLY  SERVICES      13 

ual  contraction  of  the  volume  of  paper,  a  tax 
in  kind,  and  a  foreign  loan,  which  was  to 
form  the  basis  of  a  national  bank.  When 
the  clumsiness  and  helplessness  of  the  system 
of  government  by  committees  was  finally  ap- 
preciated by  the  Continental  Congress  in 
1781,  and  several  executive  departments 
were  established,  Hamilton  was  suggested  by 
John  Sullivan  to  Washington  for  head  of  the 
Treasury  Department.  Washington  replied 
that  "  few  of  his  age  have  a  more  general 
knowledge,  and  no  one  is  more  firmly  en- 
gaged in  the  cause,  or  exceeds  him  in  prob- 
ity and  sterling  virtue."  Robert  Morris 
was  chosen  for  the  Treasury,  but  Hamilton 
opened  a  correspondence  with  him  regarding 
the  work  of  the  department,  which  estab- 
lished a  firm  friendship  between  the  older 
g,nd  younger  man. 

/  Hamilton  desired  the  unification  of  the 
debt  and  the  creation  of  a  national  bank, 
for  the  combined  objects  of  cementing  the 
Union  and  putting  the  finances  of  the  coun- 
try upon  a  stable  basis.  "  A  national  debt," 
he  wrote,  "  if  it  is  not  excessive,  will  be  a 


14  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

\  national  blessing,  a  powerful  cement  of 
^  union,  a  necessity  for  keeping  up  taxation, 
and  a  spur  to  industry."  Whether  all  these 
benefits  fall  within  the  economic  effects  of 
a  debt  may  well  be  doubted,  but  the  second 
advantage  assigned  was  undoubtedly  one  of 
the  chief  motives  of  Hamilton  in  recommend- 
ing its  creation.  The  Bank  of  North  Amer- 
ica was  established  by  Morris  upon  a  much 
more  modest  scale  than  was  proposed  by 
Hamilton.  The  younger  man,  looking  to 
the  future  needs  of  the  country  and  to  the 
example  of  European  banks,  recommended 
an  institution  with  a  capital  of  ten  or  fifteen 
millions,  with  authority  to  establish  branches, 
and  with  the  sole  right  to  issue  paper  currency 
equal  to  the  amount  of  its  capital.  He  con- 
templated a  close  relation  between  the  bank 
and  the  government,  and  the  taking  up, 
under  contract  with  the  United  States,  of 
all  the  paper  issues  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress. 

Hamilton  made  a  connection  while  still 
under  twenty-four  which  fixed  his  status  as 
a  citizen  of  New  York,  and  proved  of  value 


YOUTH  AND  EARLY  SERVICES      15 

to  him  in  many  ways.  While  on  his  mission 
to  Gates  at  Albany,  he  met  Miss  Elizabeth 
Schuyler,  daughter  of  General  Philip  Schuy- 
ler, one  of  the  social  as  well  as  political  lead- 
ers of  the  best  element  in  New  York.  Th< 
acquaintance  with  Miss  Schuyler  was  re- 
newed in  the  spring  of  1780  and  ripened 
into  an  engagement,  followed  by  their  mar- 
riage on  December  14  of  that  year.  With 
the  conclusion  of  the  war,  Hamilton  was  left 
with  nothing  but  his  title  to  arrears  of  pay 
in  the  army,  and  with  a  wife  and  child  to 
support.  He  refused  generous  offers  of  as- 
sistance from  his  father-in-law,  applied  him- 
self for  four  months  to  the  study  of  the  law, 
and  in  the  summer  of  1782  was  admitted  to 
the  bar»at  Albany.  While  waiting  for  clients 
he  continued  his  studies  on  financial  and 
political  questions  and  his  vigorous  argu- 
ments through  the  public  prints  for  a  strong 
federal  union.  He  declined  several  offers  of 
public  place,  but  finally  accepted  an  appoint- 
ment from  Robert  Morris  (June,  1782)  as 
continental  receiver  of  taxes  for  New  York. 
This  afforded  him  an  opportunity  of  meet- 


16  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

ing  the  New  York  legislature,  which  had 
been  summoned  in  extra  session  at  Pough- 
keepsie,  in  July,  to  receive  a  report  from  a 
committee  of  Congress. 

Congress  on  May,  1782,  had  taken  into 
v/ consideration  the  desperate  condition  of  the 
finances  of  the  country,  and  divided  among 
four  of  its  members  the  duty  of  explaining 
the  common  danger  of  the  states.  It  was 
at  the  request  of  the  delegation  which  went 
north  that  Governor  Clinton  called  an  extra 
session,  and  a  communication  was  submitted 
on  the  necessity  of  providing  for  a  vigorous 
prosecution  of  the  war.  Hamilton  went  to 
Poughkeepsie  to  aid  his  father-in-law,  Gen- 
eral Schuyler,  and  it  was  upon  the  motion 
of  the  latter  that  the  Senate  resolved  itself 
into  a  committee  of  the  whole  on  the  state  of 
the  nation.  Two  days  of  deliberation  were 
sufficient  to  produced  series  of  resolutions, 
probably  drafted  by  Hamilton,  which  were 
unanimously  adopted  by  the  Senate  and 
concurred  in  by  the  House. 

These  resolutions  set  forth  that  recent 
experience  afforded  "  the  strongest  reason 


YOUTH  AND  EARLY  SERVICES      17 

to  apprehend  from  a  continuance  of  the 
present  constitution  of  the  continental  gov-  * 
ernment  a  subversion  of  public  credit "  and 
danger  to  the  safety  and  independence  of 
the  states.  Turning  to  practical  remedies,  . 
it  was  pointed  out  that  the  source  of  the 
public  embarrassments  was  the  want  of  suf- 
ficient power  in  Congress,  particularly  the 
power  of  providing  a  revenue.  The  legis- 
lature of  New  York,  therefore,  invited  Con- 
gress "  to  recommend  and  each  state  to  adopt 
the  measure  of  assembling  a  general  conven^ 
tion^of  the  states  especially  authorized  to  re- 
vise ana  amend  the  confederation,  reserving 
a  right  to  the  respective  legislatures  to  rat- 
ify their  determinations."  These  resolutions 
the  government  was  requested  to  transmit  to 
Congress  and  to  the  executives  of  the  other 
states.  Hamilton  appeared^  before  the  leg- 
islature and  discussed  the  subject  of  revenue,  r 
and  one  of  the  results  of  his  manifest  inter- 
est in  the  subject  and  his  knowledge  of 
finance  was  his  selection  by  the  legislature 
as  one  of  the  members  of  Congress  from 
New  York. 


18  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

The  impress  .of  the  organizing  mind  and 
far-sighted  purposes  of  Hamilton  was  felt 
during  his  brief  service  in  Congress.  He 
took  his  seat  from  New  York  in  November, 
1782,  and  resigned  in  August,  1783.  He^ 
cast  his  influence  from  the  beginning  in; 
favor  of  a  strong  executive  organization,  and  \ 
did  his  best  to  strengthen  the  heads  of  the* 
recently  created  departments  of  finance  and 
foreign  affairs.  He  was  of  great  service  to 
Robert  Morris,  and  almost  carried  the  pro- 
ject of  a  general  duty  on  importations,  which 
was  finally  defeated  by  the  obstinacy  of 
Rhode  Island.  Such  a  measure,  if  carried 
out,  would  have  afforded  the  central  govern- 
ment a  permanent  revenue.  It  would  have 
greatly  mitigated  the  evils  of  the  time,  but 
would  perhaps  by  that  very  fact  have  post- 
poned the  more  complete  union  of  the  states 
which  was  to  come  under  the  Constitution 
of  T1789.  This  was  only  one  of  the  many 
projects  germinating  in  the  fertile  mind 
of  Hamilton.  In  a  letter  to  Washington 
(March  17,  1783)  he  wrote  :  - 

"We  have  made  considerable  progress  in 


YOUTH  AND  EARLY  SERVICES      19 

a  plan  to  be  recommended  to  the  several 
states  for  funding  all  the  public  debts,  in- 
cluding those  of  the  army,  which  is  certainly 
the  only  way  to  restore  public  credit  and 
enable  us  to  continue  the  war  by  borrow- 
ing abroad,  if  it  should  be  necessary  to  con- 
tinue it." 

That  it  might  be  necessary  to  continue 
the  war  Hamilton  seriously  feared,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  the  provisional  treaty  of 
peace  with  Great  Britain  was  then  before 
Congress.  A  grave  question  had  arisen 
whether  faith  had  been  kept  with  France 
in  the  negotiation  of  this  treaty.  Congress 
had  resolved  unanimously  (October  4, 
1782)  that  "  they  will  not  enter  into  any 
discussion  of  overtures  of  pacification  but 
in  confidence  and  in  concert  with  His  Most 
Christian  Majesty,"  the  King  of  France. 
Adams  and  Jay,  against  the  advice  of  Frank- 
lin, negotiated  secretly  with  Great  Britain, 
and  only  the  moderation  of  Vergennes, 
French  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  pre- 
vented serious  friction  between  the  allies. 


20  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

Hamilton,  though  far  from  being  a  parti- 
san of  France,  believed  in  acting  towards 
her  with  the  most  scrupulous  good  faith. 
He  advocated  a  middle  course  between  sub- 
serviency to  Great  Britain  and  implicit  con- 
fidence in  the  disinterestedness  of  France. 
He  declared  (March  18,  1783),  when  the 
peace  preliminaries  were  considered,  that  it 
was  "not  improbable  that  it  had  been  the 
policy  of  France  to  procrastinate  the  definite 
acknowledgment  of  our  independence  on  the 
part  of  Great  Britain,  in  order  to  keep  us 
more  knit  to  herself,  and  until  her  own  in- 
terests could  be  negotiated."  Notwithstand- 
ing this  caution  regarding  French  purposes, 
he  "  disapproved  highly  of  the  conduct  of 
our  ministers  in  not  showing  the  prelimi- 
nary articles  to  our  ally  before  they  signed 
them,  and  still  more  so  of  their  agreeing  to 
the  separate  article."  His  own  view  was 
expressed  in  some  resolutions  which  he 
offered,  and  which  Congress  adopted  (May 
2,  1783),  asking  a  further  loan  from  the 
French  King,  "  and  that  His  Majesty  might 


YOUTH  AND  EARLY  SERVICES      21 

be  informed  that  Congress  will  consider  his 
compliance  in  this  instance  as  a  new  and 
valuable  proof  of  his  friendship,  peculiarly 
interesting  in  the  present  conjuncture  of  the 
affairs  of  the  United  States." 


II 

THE    FIGHT    FOB    THE    CONSTITUTION 

HAMILTON  was  not  a  conspicuous  national 
figure  during  the  four  years  which  elapsed 
between  the  termination  of  his  term  in  Con- 
gress and  his  appearance  in  the  Federal 
Convention  of  1787.  He  was  working  none 
the  less  earnestly  and  persistently,  however, 
in  favor  of  a  stronger  union.  ^Movements 
towards  this  union  took  form  almost  simul- 
taneously in  different  parts  of  the  country 
under  the  impulse  of  a  common  need.  The 
wise  and  thoughtful  words  of  Washington, 
in  his  circular  letter  to  the  governor  of 
each  state  on  surrendering  the  command  of 
the  army  (June  8,  1783),  sank  into  many 
hearts,  and  did  much  to  soften  local  preju- 
dices against  giving  more  power  to  the  cen- 
tral government.  The  State  of  Virginia  in 
December,  1783,  ceded  her  northwestern 
territory  to  Congress,  and  granted  a  general 


FIGHT  FOR  THE  CONSTITUTION     23 

impost.  Significance  was  given  to  the  act 
by  the  policy  of  the  governor  in  communi- 
cating it  to  the  executive  authority  of  the 
other  states,  with  the  suggestion  that  they 
do  likewise. 

Jefferson  was  as  cordial  a  supporter  as 
Madison  at  that  time  of  the  project  of  a  fed- 
eral union.  As  a  member  of  Congress,  he 
prepared  a  plan  for  intercourse  with  the 
powers  of  Europe  and  the  Barbary  States, 
in  which  he  described  "the  United  States 
as  one  nation  upon  the  principles  of  the 
federal  constitution."  Only  two  states  — 
Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  —  voted  to 
substitute  weaker  words  in  describing  the 
union.  It  was  voted  by  eight  states  to  two 
(March  26,  1784)  that  in  treaties  and  in 
all  cases  arising  under  them,  the  United 
States  formed  "  one  nation."  The  need  for 
uniform  rules  for  the  regulation  of  commerce 
on  the  Potomac  and  the  creation  of  roads 
and  canals  led  to  a  number  of  conferences 
during  the  next  two  years  between  Virginia 
and  Maryland,  in  one  of  which  Washington 
played  the  part  of  referee.  The  legislature 


24  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

of  Maryland  finally  took  a  step  which  shot 
a  bright  ray  of  light  through  the  darkness 
surrounding  the  prospects  of  a  permanent 
union.  In  a  letter  to  the  legislature  of 
Virginia  (December,  1785),  it  proposed  that 
commissioners  from  all  the  states  should  be 
invited  to  meet  and  regulate  the  restrictions 
on  commerce  for  the  whole.  Madison  in 
Virginia  gave  cordial  welcome  to  the  invi- 
tation. He  had  already  gone  beyond  the 
sentiment  of  his  state  in  his  zeal  for  union, 
but  at  his  instigation  a  meeting  of  delegates 
from  the  states  was  called  by  Virginia  at 
Annapolis,  Md.,  for  September,  1786. 

Hamilton  snatched  at  the  opportunity 
which  this  invitation  presented.  Several  of 
his  friends  were  elected  to  the  legislature  of 
New  York,  and  made  the  appointment  of  del- 
egates to  Annapolis  their  paramount  object. 
In  spite  of  much  hostility,  they  succeeded 
in  wresting  authority  from  the  legislature 
for  a  commission  of  five.  Hamilton  and 
Benson  were  the  only  two  of  these  delegates 
who  appeared  at  Annapolis.  They  found 
only  four  other  states  represented  there.  It 


FIGHT  FOE  THE  CONSTITUTION    25 

was  determined  that  the  best  that  could  be 
done  by  the  little  gathering  was  to  urge 
upon  the  states  a  general  convention,  to 
meet  at  Philadelphia  on  the  second  Mon- 
day of  the  next  May,  "to  consider  the  situ- 
ation of  the  United  States,  and  devise  such 
further  provisions  as  should  appear  neces- 
sary to  render  the  constitution  of  the  federal 
government  adequate  to  the  exigencies  of 
the  Union."  Hamilton  was  not  a  member 
of  the  committee  appointed  to  prepare  the 
report,  but  it  was  his  draft  which,  with  some 
modifications  to  meet  the  sensibilities  of  the 
Virginians,  was  accepted  and  adopted. 

A  path  was  now  blazed  in  which  those 
who  favored  a  stronger  union  could  walk  in 
harmony.  Hamilton  returned  to  New  York 
with  the  intention  of  exerting  his  whole 
strength  in  behalf  of  the  convention.  He 
secured  an  election  to  the  legislature,  and  at 
once  took  the  lead  of  the  members  opposed 
to  the  separatist  policy  of  Governor  Clinton. 
He  assailed  the  governor  on  the  question  of 
granting  an  impost  to  Congress  in  a  practi- 
cable form,  but  was  beaten  by  the  solid  vote 


26  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

of  the  party  in  power.  He  succeeded  better 
with  his  resolution  for  the  appointment  of 
five  delegates  to  the  convention  at  Philadel- 
phia. The  Senate  cut  down  the  number  to 
three,  and  two  of  them — Chief  Justice  Rob- 
ert Yates  and  John  Lansing,  Jr.  —  were 
resolute  supporters  of  the  governor ;  but 
Hamilton  carried  the  vital  point  that  New 
York  should  be  represented  in  the  Federal 
Convention,  and  he  was  himself  one  of  the 
delegates.  It  was  not  until  late  in  February, 
1787,  that  this  action  was  taken,  —  little 
more  than  three  months  before  the  meeting 
of  the  convention,  —  and  it  was  a  few  days 
later  when  formal  approval  was  given  to  the 
project  by  the  Federal  Congress. 

Hamilton,  although  one  of  the  three  dele- 
gates from  New  York  to  the  convention,  was 
embarrassed  throughout  the  proceedings  by 
the  open  hostility  of  his  associates  to  any 
vigorous  steps  towards  a  strong  union.  He 
had  definite  ideas  and  strong  feelings,  how- 
ever, and  could  not  restrain  himself  from 
setting  forth  his  views  of  what  the  new  gov- 
ernment should  be.  When  Dickinson  pro- 


FIGHT  FOB  THE  CONSTITUTION    27 

posed  that  the  convention  should  seek  union 
through  a  revision  of  the  old  Articles  of  Con- 
federation, Hamilton  took  the  floor  (June 
18,  1787)  to  show  how  inadequate  such  a 
measure  would  be,  and  to  set  forth  his  own 
long  matured  views.  He  spoke  for  six  hou 
reviewing  the  history  of  the  colonies  before 
the  Revolution,  during  its  progress,  and 
afterwards,  the  steps  which  had  been  taken 
towards  union,  and  the  imperative  necessity 
which  had  been  disclosed  for  a  government 
possessing  complete  powers  within  its  fields 
of  action.  Hejarged  that  Jbha-^on  von  tips  ~ 
"adopt  a  solid  plan  without^ regard  J,o  tem- 
porary^iiiions."  He  laid  bare  unsparingly 
the  defects  of  the  confederacy,  and  insisted 
that  the  Articles  of  Confederation  could  not 
be  amended  with  benefit  except  in  the  most 
radical  manner.  He  opposed  strongly  the 
creation  of  a  general  government  through  a 
single  body  like  Congress,  because  it  would 
be  without  checks.  He  continued :  — 

"  The  general  government  must  not  only 
have  a  strong  soul,  but  strong  organs  by 
which  that  soul  is  to  operate.  I  despair 


28  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

that  a  republican  form  of  government  can 
remove  the  difficulties ;  I  would  hold  it,  how- 
ever, unwise  to  change  it.  The  best  form 
of  government,  not  attainable  by  us,  but  the 
model  to  which  we  should  approach  as  near 
as  possible,  is  the  Bi ' '  ish  constitution,  praised 
by  Necker  as  4  the  only  government  which 
unites  public  strength  with  individual  se- 
curity.' Its  house  of  lords  is  a  most  noble 
institution.  It  forms  a  permanent  barrier 
against  every  pernicious  innovation,  whether 
attempted  on  the  part  of  the  crown  or  of 
the  commons." 

Hamilton  made  little  concealment  of  his 
belief  that  the  new  government  should  not 
be  exclusively  republican.  He  said  on  June 
26,  1787:- 

"  I  acknowledge  I  do  not  think  favorably 
of  republican  government ;  but  I  address  my 
remarks  to  those  who  do,  in  order  to  prevail 
on.  them  to  tone  their  government  as  high  as 
possible.  I  profess  myself  as  zealous  an 
advocate  for  liberty  as  any  man  whatever ; 
and  trust  I  shall  be  as  willing  a  martyr  to  it, 
though  I  differ  as  to  the  form  in  which  it  is 


FIGHT  FOR  THE  CON^XIXOTTION    29 


most  eligible.  Real  liberty  is  neither  found 
in  despotism  nor  in  the  extremes  of  democracy, 
but  in  moderate  governments.  Those  who 
mean  to  form  a  solid  republic  ought  to  pro- 
ceed to  the  confines  of  another  government. 
If  we  incline  too  muo1?  to  democracy,  we 
shall  soon  shoot  into  a  monarchy." 

In  pursuance  of  these  views,  Hamilton 
urged  that  all  branches  of  the  new  govern- 
ment should  originate  in  the  action  of  the 
people  rather  than  of  the  states.  In  this 
respect  he  came  closer  to  democracy  than 
some  of  his  opponents,  but  he  proposed  to 
give  strength  and  permanence  to  the  gov- 
ernment by  providing  that  the  Senators  and 
the  executive  should  hold  office  during  good 
behavior.  He  contended  that  by  making 
the  chief  executive  subject  to  impeachment, 
the  term  monarchy  would  not  be  applicable 
to  his  office.  Another  step  differing  radi- 
cally from  the  Constitution  as  adopted,  and 
showing  the  unswerving  purpose  of  Hamilton 
to  give  supremacy  to  the  central  government, 
was  the  proposal  that  the  executive  of  each 
state  should  be  appointed  by  the  general 


30  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

government  and  have  a  negative  on  all  state 
legislation. 

Hamilton  had  no  expectation  that  his  plan 
would  be  adopted.  What  he  sought  was  to 
key  the  temper  of  the  delegates  up  to  a  pitch 
which  would  bring  them  as  nearly  to  his 
ideal  of  what  the  new  government  should  be 
as  was  possible  under  the  circumstances  of 
the  times.  His  long  speech  was  attentively 
listened  to,  and  even  Yates  reported  that  it 
"was  praised  by  everybody,  but  supported 
by  none."  Notwithstanding  these  criticisms, 
the  Constitution,  as  it  was  finally  adopted, 
embodied  many  of  the  features  of  the  pro- 
ject which  was  outlined  by  Hamilton.  A 
legislative  body  of  two  houses,  the  choice  of 
the  executive  by  electors,  a  veto  for  the  ex- 
ecutive over  legislative  acts,  the  grant  of  the 
treaty-making  power  to  the  executive  and  the 
Senate,  the  confirmation  of  appointments  by 
the  Senate,  the  creation  of  a  federal  judici- 
ary, and  the  provision  that  state  laws  in 
conflict  with  the  Constitution  should  be  void; 
these  and  many  other  features  of  the  exist- 
ing Constitution  were  parts  of  the  plan  of 
Hamilton. 


FIGHT  FOR  THE  CONSTITUTION    31 

It  was  not  the  open  preference  which  Ham- 
ilton expressed  for  the  British  form  of  gov- 
ernment which  caused  distrust  of  his  plan. 
This  was  neither  startling  nor  offensive  to 
the  great  majority  of  those  who  heard  him. 
Kepresentative  government  under  a  republi- 
can head  had  not  then  been  tried  upon  a  large 
scale  in  any  part  of  the  world.  Such  small 
republics  as  existed  in  ancient  times  and  in 
Italy  had  been  confined  within  narrow  areas, 
and  had  in  many  cases  presented  examples 
of  factional  strife  which  were  far  from  en- 
couraging to  the  friends  of  liberty.  The 
Americans,  in  revolting  against  Great  Brit- 
ain, revolted  only  against  what  they  consid- 
ered the  false  interpretation  given  by  King 
George  to  the  guarantees  of  the  English  con- 
stitution, wrested  by  their  ancestors  from 
King  John  and  his  successors  and  conse- 
crated by  the  Revolution  of  1688.  It  was 
far  from  the  thoughts  of  the  most  extreme, 
with  perhaps  an  occasional  personal  excep- 
tion, to  cut  loose  from  the  traditions  of  Eng- 
lish liberty,  tear  down  the  ancient  struc- 
ture, and  build  from  the  ground  up,  as  was 


32  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

done  a  few  years  later  in  France  by  the 
maddened  victims  of  the  oppression  of  the 
nobles. 

The  sentiment  most  strongly  opposed  to 
the  views  of  Hamilton  was  not  democratic 
sentiment,  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word, 
but  devotion  to  local  self-government. 
Hamilton  was  democratic  enough  to  insist, 
in  the  discussion  of  the  manner  of  choosing 
members  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
"  It  is  essential  to  the  democratic  rights  of 
the  community  that  the  first  branch  Jbe 
directly  elected  by  the  people."  What  he 
desired  was  strength  at  the  centre  of  author- 
ity, from  whatever  source  that  authority  was 
derived.  Comingfrom  a  little  West  Indian 
island  where  the  traditions  of  parliamentary 
government  had  little  footing,  he  attached 
no  such  importance  as  most  of  his  associates 
to  the  reserved  rights  of  the  states.  He 
was  the  man  for  the  hour  as  the  champion 
...of  a  strong  government,  but  it  would  not 
have  been  fortunate  iiTsbme  respects  if  his 
views  had  been  adopted  in  their  extreme 
form.  There  never  was  the  slightest  chance, 


FIGHT  FOR  THE  CONSTITUTION     33, 

as  he  doubtless  knew,  that  they  would  be 
adopted  by  the  descendants  of  English  free- 
men who  had  founded  self-governing  states 
in  accord  with  their  own  principles  on  the 
western  shores  of  the  Atlantic. 

Having  delivered  a  single  strong  speech, 
which  pointed  the  way  towards  a  strong 
union,  Hamilton  remained  comparatively  in 
the  background  during  the  remainder  of  the 
convention.  It  was  inevitable,  however, 
that  he  shotdd  make  himself  heard  upon  the 
proposal  that  the  new  government  should 
have  power  "  to  emit  bills  on  the  credit  of 
the  United  States."  The  power  to  issue 
unfunded  paper  had  received  his  censure 
four  years  before,  as  one  of  the  defects  of  the 
existing  Articles  of  Confederation.  He  now 
opposed  in  the  most  emphatic  manner  the 
grant  of  authority  to  the  new  government 
to  issue  paper  money  in  the  form  of  its  own 
notes,  and  to  force  them  into  circulation  as  a 
substitute  for  gold  and  silver  coin.  When 
Gouverneur  Morris  moved  to  strike  out  the 
power  to  issue  bills  on  the  credit  of  the 
United  States  and  was  supported  by  Madi- 


34  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

son,  it  was  supposed  that,  if  the  motion 
prevailed,  the  power  to  issue  government 
paper  money  and  make  it  a  legal  tender  for 
debts  was  guarded  against  for  all  time. 
The  power  was  stricken  out  of  the  Con- 
stitution by  a  vote  of  nine  states  against 
two.  Madison  decided  the  vote  of  Virginia, 
and  declared  that  "  the  pretext  for  a  paper 
currency,  and  particularly  for  making  the 
bills  a  tender,  either  for  public  or  private 
debts,  was  cut  off."  It  is  not  surprising 
that  Mr.  Bancroft,  the  jealous  friend  of  the 
Constitution,  in  spite  of  the  opening  of  the 
door  at  a  later  period  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  declared : 

"  This  is  the  interpretation  of  the  clause, 
made  at  the  time  of  its  adoption  alike  by  its 
authors  and  by  its  opponents,  accepted  by 
all  the  statesmen  of  that  age,  not  open  to 
dispute  because  too  clear  for  argument,  and 
never  disputed  so  long  as  any  one  man  who 
took  part  in  framing  the  Constitution  re- 
mained alive." 

Hamilton  spoke  on  a  few  other  occasions 
on  subsidiary  points  connected  with  the 


/  FIGHT  FOR  THE  CONSTITUTION^  35 

draft  of  the  Constitution,  but  it  was  only 
at  the  close  of  the  convention  that  he  again 
came .  resolutely  to  the  front  to  exert  a 
strong  influence  over  his  associates.  When 
the  final  draft  of  the  new  frame  of  govern- 
ment had  been  completed,  several  delegates 
showed  symptoms  of  refusing  to  affix  their 
signatures.  The  great  weight  of  Franklin 
was  thrown  into  the  scale  to  urge  that  the 
delegates  go  back  to  the  people  presenting 
the  semblance  of  harmony  instead  of  divi- 
sions. "  I  consent  to  this  Constitution,"  he 
declared,  "  because  I  expect  no  better,  and 
because  I  am  not  sure  that  it  is  not  the 
best."  Washington  sought  also  to  secure 
unanimity,  and  Hamilton  declared  :  — 

"  I  am  anxious  that  every  member  should 
sign.  A  few  by  refusing  may  do  infinite 
mischief.  No  man's  ideas  are  more  remote 
from  the  plan  than  my  own  are  known  to 
be  ;  but  is  it  possible  to  deliberate  between 
anarchy  and  convulsion  on  the  one  side,  and 
the  chance  of  good  to  be  expected  from  the 
plan  on  the  other  ?  " 

Such  words   had    some   weight,  but   not 


36  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

enough  to  secure  unanimity.  All  the  states 
voted  for  the  Constitution,  but  several  dele- 
gates went  on  record  against  it,  and  Hamil- 
ton's two  associates  from  New  York  were 
absent.  It  was  this  alone  which  saved 
New  York  from  being  recorded  against  the 
Constitution.  Hamilton  did  not  shrink  from 
putting  down  his  signature  as  the  representa- 
tive of  his  state.  It  was  he  who,  in  a  bold, 
plain  hand,  inscribed  on  the  great  sheet  of 
parchment  the  name  of  each  state,  as  the 
delegations  came  forward,  one  after  another, 
in  geographical  order  and  affixed  their 
signatures  to  the  precious  document  which 
was  to  found  the  government  of  the  United 
States. 

Hamilton  returned  to  New  York  deter- 
mined to  use  his  utmost  powers  to  secure 
the  ratification  of  the  Constitution  as  the 
best  attainable  means  of  averting  the  dangers 
of  disunion.  Although  cordially  supported 
by  John  Jay  and  Edward  Livingston, 
Hamilton,  in  the  fight  for  ratification  in 
New  York,  was  the  natural  leader.  He 
found  arrayed  against  him  the  whole  influ- 


FIGHT  FOR  THE  CONSTITUTION    37 

ence  of  Governor  Clinton  and  the  dominant 
party  in  New  York  politics.  Clinton  was  not 
absolutely  opposed  to  union,  but  he  attached 
to  it  so  many  reservations  that  for  practical 
purposes  he  was  an  opponent  of  the  new 
Constitution.  The  battle  over  ratification 
began  on  the  question  of  the  choice  of  dele- 
gates to  the  state  convention.  It  was  in  this 
field  that  Hamilton  fought  the  great  fight 
with  his  pen  which  has  left  to  posterity  the 
fine  exposition  of  the  Constitution  known 
as  "  The  Federalist."  A  society  was  formed 
in  the  city  of  New  York  to  resist  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Constitution,  and  articles  soon 
began  to  appear  in  the  local  press  criticising 
and  opposing  it. 

Preparing  a  vigorous  letter,  while  gliding 
down  the  Hudson,  in  reply  to  some  of  the 
first  points  of  the  opposition,  Hamilton 
soon  extended  the  project  into  a  series  of 
strong  papers,  which  appeared  twice  a  week 
for  twenty  weeks  over  the  signature  of 
"  Publius."  He  secured  the  aid  of  Madison 
and  Jay,  who  wrote  some  of  the  papers,  but 
the  project  was  Hamilton's,  the  majority  of 


38  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

the  papers  were  written  by  Mm,  and  to  him 
has  been  justly  given  the  credit  of  the  well- 
knit  and  powerful  arguments  afterwards 
printed  under  the  title  of  "  The  Federalist." 
Taking  up  point  by  point  the  provisions 
of  the  new  Constitution,  Hamilton,  by  skillful 
argument,  drawn  from  the  closest  abstract 
reasoning,  the  recent  experience  of  the 
states,  and  the  history  of  foreign  countries, 
sought  to  show  that  the  new  Constitution 
was  based  upon  sound  principles  of  govern- 
ment, that  it  was  well  calculated  to  carry 
out  these  principles,  and  that  its  acceptance 
was  practically  the  only  course  open  to  the 
American  people  to  insure  for  themselves 
the  benefits  of  liberty,  prosperity,  and  peace. 
"  The  Federalist,"  although  a  purely  politi- 
cal argument,  has  survived  the  occasion 
which  called  it  forth,  as  t>ne  of  the  master 
documents  of  political  writing.  That  it  has  a 
distinct  place  in  literature  is  admitted  by  so 
severe  a  critic  as  Professor  Barrett  Wendell 
in  his  recent  "  Literary  History  of  America." 
It  is  worth  while  quoting  his  acute  literary 
judgment  of  its  merits :  — 


FIGHT  FOR  THE  CONSTITUTION     39 

"  As  a  series  of  formal  essays,  the  '  Fed- 
eralist '  groups  itself  roughly  with  the 
6  Tatler,'  the  '  Spectator,'  and  those  nu- 
merous descendants  of  theirs  which  fill  the 
literary  records  of  eighteenth  century  Eng- 
land. It  differs,  however,  from  all  these, 
in  both  substance  and  purpose.  The  '  Tat- 
ler,' the  '  Spectator,'  and  their  successors 
dealt  with  superficial  matters  in  a  spirit  of 
literary  amenity:  the  'Federalist'  deals  in 
an  argumentative  spirit  as  earnest  as  that 
of  any  Puritan  divine  with  political  prin- 
ciples paramount  in  our  history ;  and  it  is  so 
wisely  thoughtful  that  one  may  almost  de- 
clare it  the  permanent  basis  of  sound  think- 
ing concerning  American  constitutional  law. 
Like  all  the  educated  writing  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  too,  it  is  phrased  with  a 
rhythmical  balance  and  urbane  polish  which 
give  it  claim  to  literary  distinction." 

While  the  written  arguments  of  Hamil- 
ton in  "  The  Federalist "  have  survived  for 
a  hundred  years  and  been  consulted  by 
foreign  students  in  the  formation  of  new 
constitutions,  a  more  severe  task  was  im- 


40  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

posed  upon  him  at  the  meeting  of  the  state 
convention  called  to  consider  the  report  of 
the  convention  at  Philadelphia.  It  was  in 
some  respects  the  hardest  task  ever  set  with 
any  hope  of  success  before  a  parliamentary 
leader.  Indeed,  to  the  superficial  obse'rver 
there  would  have  seemed  to  be  no  hope  of 
success,  when  in  the  elections  to  the  state 
convention  the  supporters  of  Governor  Clin- 
ton chose  forty-six  delegates  and  left  on  the 
side  of  Hamilton  only  nineteen  of  the  sixty- 
five  members.  But  this  statement  of  the 
case  gives  a  somewhat  darker  color  to  the 
situation  than  the  real  facts.  There  was  a 
strong  and  growing  body  of  public  senti- 
ment for  the  Constitution  in  New  York  city 
and  the  counties  along  the  Huclson,  which 
even  led  to  the  suggestion  that  they  should 
join  the  Union  in  any  event  and  leave  the 
northern  counties  to  shift  for  themselves. 
It  ~vvas  generally  recognized,  moreover,  that 
however  strong  the  objections  were  to  the 
Constitution,  the  choice  lay  practically  be- 
tween this  Constitution  and  none,  —  between 
the  proposed  government  and  anarchy. 


FIGHT  FOR  THE  CONSTITUTION    41 

So  strong  was  the  sentiment  that  the 
Constitution  must  be  accepted  in  some  form, 
that  its  opponents  in  the  state  convention 
did  not  venture  upon  immediate  rejection. 
Fortunately,  their  course  in  fighting  for  de- 
lay only  tended  to  make  it  clearer  that 
New  York  would  stand  alone  if  she  failed 
to  ratify.  While  the  dream  of  independ- 
ent sovereignty,  or  the  leadership  in  a  fed- 
eration which  should  dictate  terms  to  the 
surrounding  states,  was  not  without  its 
attractions  to  the  more  ambitious  of  the 
opposition  leaders,  there  was  a  darker  side 
to  the  proposition  which  was  much  less  at- 
tractive. Independence  for  New  York 
meant  a  heavy  burden  of  taxation  for  a 
separate  army  and  navy,  for  guarding  long 
frontiers  on  the  east,  north,  and  south,  for 
supporting  an  extensive  customs  service 
along  the  same  frontiers,  for  maintaining 
ministers  at  foreign  courts  and  consuls  in 
the  leading  cities  of  the  world,  and  for 
meeting  all  the  other  expenses  of  a  sover- 
eign nation. 

It  was  fortunate  for  the  state  and  the 


42  ALEXANDEK  HAMILTON 

country  that  the  leader  of  the  opposition  to 
the  Constitution  in  the  New  York  conven- 
tion was  a  man  of  a  high  order  of  ability, 
whose  mind  was  open  in  an  unusual  degree 
to  the  influence  of  logical  reasoning.  This 
man  was  Melancthon  Smith,  who  is  ac- 
corded by  Chancellor  Kent,  the  great  au- 
thority on  American  law,  the  credit  of  being 
noted  "  for  his  love  of  reading,  tenacious 
memory,  powerful  intellect,  and  for  the 
metaphysical  and  logical  discussions  of 
which  he  was  a  master."  It  is  as  much 
to  his  credit  as  that  of  Hamilton  that  he 
finally  admitted  that  he  had  been  convinced 
by  Hamilton,  and  that  he  should  vote  for 
the  Constitution.  This  result  was  only 
reached,  however^,*  after  a  long  and  some- 
times acrimonious  struggle,  in  which  Hamil- 
ton was  on  his  feet  day  after  day  explaining 
and  defending  each  separate  clause  of  the 
Constitution,  —  not  only  in  its  real  meaning, 
but  against  all  the  distorted  constructions 
put  upon  it  by  the  most  acute  and  jealous 
of  critics.  V 

But  events  had  been  fighting  with  Hamil- 


FIGHT  FOR  THE  CONSTITUTION    43 

ton.  State  after  state  had  ratified  the  new 
document,  and  news  of  their  action  had 
reached  New  York.  Nine  states,  the  num- 
ber necessary  to  put  the  Constitution  in 
force,  were  made  up  by  the  ratification  of 
New  Hampshire  (June  21,  1788).  Still 
New  York  hesitated,  and  Hamilton  wrote  to 
Madison :  "  Our  chance  of  success  depends 
upon  you.  Symptoms  of  relaxation  in  some 
of  the  leaders  authorize  a  gleam  of  hope  if 
you  do  well,  but  certainly  I  think  not  oth- 
erwise." Virginia  justified  his  hopes  by  a 
majority  of  89  against  79  for  ratification 
(June  25,  1788).  The  news  reached  New 
York  on  July  3.  The  opposition  there, 
though  showing  signs  of  relenting,  was 
still  stubborn.  Conditional  ratification, 
with  a  long  string  of  amendments,  was  first 
proposed.  Jay  firmly  insisted  that  the 
word  "  conditional "  must  be  erased.  Finally, 
on  July  11,  he  proposed  unconditional 
ratification.  Melancthon  Smith  then  pro- 
posed ratification  with  the  right  to  with- 
draw if  the  amendments  should  not  be 
accepted.  Hamilton  exposed  the  folly  of 


44  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

such  a  project  in  a  brilliant  speech,  which 
led  Smith  to  admit  that  conditional  ratifica- 
tion was  an  absurdity.  Other  similar  pro- 
posals were  brought  forward,  but  they  were 
evidently  equivalent  to  rejection  by  indirec- 
tion, which  would  have  left  New  York  out 
of  the  new  Union. 

Finally,  Samuel  Jones,  another  broad- 
minded  member  of  the  opposition,  proposed 
ratification  without  conditions,  but  "  in  full 
confidence  "  that  Congress  would  adopt  all 
needed  amendments.  With  the  support  of 
Smith,  this  form  of  ratification  was  carried 
by  the  slender  majority  of  three  votes  (July 
26,  1788).  By  this  narrow  margin  it  was 
decided  that  New  York  should  form  a  part 
of  the  Union,  and  that  the  great  experiment 
in  -  representative  government  should  not 
begin  with  the  two  halves  of  the  country 
separated  by  a  hostile  power,  commanding 
the. greatest  seaport  of  the  colonies. 

Hamilton  thus  played  an  important  part 
in  winning  the  first  great  battle  for  the 
Constitution.  Ratification  was  only  one 
of  many  steps  which  remained  to  be  taken 


FIGHT  FOR  THE  CONSTITUTION    45 

before  the  new  government  was  in  working 
order.  Hamilton  hurried  back  to  the  Fed- 
eral Congress,  and  carried  an  ordinance  fix- 
ing the  dates  and  the  place  for  putting  the 
new  government  in  operation.  When  he 
returned  to  New  York,  he  was  beaten  for 
reelection  to  Congress,  and  Governor  Clin- 
ton and  his  party  retained  such  a  firm  grip 
upon  the  legislature  that  a  deadlock  occurred 
between  the  Federalist  House  and  the  op- 
position Senate.  New  York  was  unrepre- 
sented in  the  first  electoral  college,  and  had 
no  senators  at  the  meeting  of  the  First 
Congress.  The  state  elections  which  fol- 
lowed resulted  in  defeat  for  the  Federalists 
in  the  election  of  the  governor,  but  they 
carried  the  legislature  and  elected  two  sena- 
tors, —  General  Schuyler  and  Rufus  King. 
King  had  recently  come  from  Massachusetts, 
and  Hamilton's  insistence  that  he  should  be 
chosen  caused  a  breach  with  the  Living- 
stons, which  contributed  to  the  defeat  of 
Schuyler  two  years  later  and  the  election 
of  Aaron  Burr.  Hamilton's  course  in  this 
matter  was  one  of  many  cases  in  which  he 


46  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

showed  that  he  was  not  an  astute  politi- 
cian, nor  an  adept  at  dealing  with  men. 
His  highest  qualities  were  those  more  dis- 
tinctly intellectual,  which  led  him  to  drive 
straight  towards  a  desired  object,  with  little 
patience  for  smaller  men  or  the  obstacles 
which  stood  in  his  way. 


m 

y     ESTABLISHING   THE   PUBLIC    CREDIT 

THE  great  work  of  Hamilton,  which  was 
to  stamp  his  name  forever  upon  American 
history  and  our  frame  of  government,  was 
yet  before  him.  Washington  was  inaugu- 
rated in  April,  1789,  but  it  was  not  until 
September  2  that  an  act  passed  Congress 
establishing  the  Treasury  Department.  Ham- 
ilton was  the  selection  of  Washington  for 
the  new  post.  It  was  a  selection  so  well  ap- 
proved by  all  who  were  familiar  with  Ham- 
ilton's great  abilities  as  an  organizer  and 
financier  that  the  nomination  was  confirmed 
on  the  day  that  it  reached  the  Senate.  The 
studies  of  many  years,  the  programme  which 
had  been  outlined  in  letters  to  Morris  and 
in  the  newspapers,  were  now  to  bear  fruit 
under  the  directing  genius  of  Hamilton. 
Only  ten  days  passed  after  his  appointment 
before  Congress  requested  him  to  prepare  a 


48  ALEXANDER   HAMILTON 

^\|  report  upon  the  public/  credit.  Then  came 
calls  for  reports  on  the  collection  and  man- 
agement of  the  revenue ;  estimates  of  receipts 
and  expenditures  ;  the  regulation  of  the  cur- 
rency; the  navigation  laws;  the  post-office, 
and  the  public  lands.  Money  had  to  be 
found  at  once  for  the  pressing  needs  of  the 
new  government  before  the  more  elaborate 
projects  of  the  young  minister  of  finance 
could  be  put  in  operation.  But  Hamilton 
did  not  delay  long  even  for  the  more  im- 
-  __portant  and  permanent  work.  When  Con- 
N.  gressx  met  in  January,  he  submitted  his 

^V» Celebrated  report  "On  Public  Credit,"  which 

J"**"^*^^»— 

laid  the  corner-stone  of  American  finance 
under  the  Constitution. 

This  report  of  Hamilton's  on  the  public 
credit  has  long  stood  out  as  one  of  the  master 
state  papers  of  American  history.  Read  to- 
day in  the  light  of  the  economic  progress  of 
more  than  a  century,  its  conclusions  are  not 
entirely  novel,  but  are  in  the  main  clear  and 
sound.  To  obtain  a  proper  perspective  re- 
garding their  value,  the  mind  should  be  pro- 
jected back  to  the  beginning  of  1790,  when 


ESTABLISHING  PUBLIC  CREDIT    49 

political  economy  as  a  science  had  barely 
been  born,  and  the  work  of  Adam  Smith,  al- 
though about  fourteen  years  old,  was  prob- 
ably known  to  but  few  in  America.  Many 
public  men  of  to-day  with  the  proper  pre- 
liminary training  might  evolve  as  sound* a 
report  as  that  of  Hamilton,  but  no  ordinary 
man  could  have  done  it  a  hundred  and  ten 
years  ago,  and  few  men  could  do  it  to-day 
with  the  force  of  diction,  precision  and  di- 
rectness of  statement,  the  grasp  of  principles, 
and  the  mastery  of  detail  which  n^arked  the 
work  of  Hamilton. 

He  seemed  to  gather  in  his  hands  all  the 
tangled  threads  of  the  disordered  finances  of 
the  Continental  Congress  and  of  the  states 
and  show  how  they  could  be  woven  into  a 
band  of  strength  and  symmetry,  holding  to- 
getner  by  the  motive  of  enlightened  self- 
interest  all  the  parts  of  the  new  Union.  He 
proposed  to  plant  the  public  credit  upon  a 
firm  foundation,  satisfy  the  public  creditors, 
and  put  the  nation  on  the  high  road  to  in- 
dustrial and  financial  progress.  The  diffi- 
culties which  Hamilton  confronted  were  not 


50  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

*  merely  a  bankrupt  Treasury  and  a  loose 
system  of  finance  under  the  federal  govern- 
ment, but  large  expenditures  by  the  states 
for  carrying  on  the  Revolutionary  War,  for 
which  reimbursement  was  demanded  by  the 
states  which  had  spent  the  most  and  was 
opposed  by  those  which  had  spent  the  least. 
Hamilton  endeavored  to  show  that  all  would 
gain  by  the  assumption  of  these  debts  by  the 
federal  government.  Although  a  thinker 
rather  than  a  tactician,  he  was  shrewd  enough 
to  make  an  appeal  early  in  his  report  to  all 
men  engaged  in  industry  by  pointing  out  the 
importance  of  public  credit  upon  the  volume 
and  profits  of  private  business.  He  endeav- 
ored first  to  make  clear  the  benefit  to  any 
government  of  a  sound  fiscal  system.  He 
said  upon  this  point :  — 

"  As,  on  the  one  hand,  the  necessity  for 
borrowing  in  particular  emergencies  cannot 
be  doubted,  so,  on  the  other,  it  is  equally 
evident  that  to  be  able  to  borrow  upon  good 
terms,  it  is  essential  that  the  credit  of  a 
nation  should  be  well  established.  For,  when 
the  credit  of  a  country  is  in  any  degree 


ESTABLISHING  PUBLIC  CREDIT    51 

questionable,  it  never  fails  to  give  an  ex- 
travagant premium,  in  one  shape  or  another, 
upon  all  the  loans  it  has  occasion  to  make. 
Nor  does  the  evil  end  here ;  the  same  dis- 
advantage must  be  sustained  upon  whatever 
is  to  be  bought  on  terms  of  future  payment. 
From  this  constant  necessity  of  borrowing 
and  buying  dear^  it  is  easy  to  conceive  how 
immensely  the  expenses  of  a  nation,  in  the 
course  of  time,  will  be  augmented  by  an 
unsound  state  of  the  public  credit." 

Taking  up  the  demonstration  how  closely 
the  public  credit  is  linked  with  the  fortune 
of  the  individual,  Hamilton  points  out  that 
public  securities  are  a  part  of  the  medium  of 
exchange,  that  sound  credit  will  extend  trade 
by  preventing  the  export  of  money,  and  that 
agriculture  and  manufactures  will  be  pro- 
moted because  "more  capital  can  be  com- 
manded to  be  employed  in  both,"  and  that 
the  interest  of  money  will  be  lowered. 

Hamilton  took  up  and  punctured  in  his 
report  several  fallacies  regarding  the  treat- 
ment of  the  debt  which  had  obtained  lodg- 
ment in  the  public  mind  and  threatened  to 


52  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

influence  the  action  of  Congress.  One  of 
these  was  that  a  distinction  should  be  made 
between  those  holders  of  the  debt  to  whom 
it  was  originally  issued  and  those  who  had 
acquired  it  by  purchase.  As  the  latter 
holders  had  bought  the  debt  in  some  cases 
at  a  mere  fraction  of  its  face  value  and  for 
speculative  purposes,  the  specious  argument 
was  made  that  they  were  entitled  in  the  set- 
tlement with  the  government  only  to  what 
they  had  paid  the  original  holders.  Hamil- 
ton set  himself  to  dissipate  this  prejudice  by 
showing  that  the  man  who  had  been  willing 
to  purchase  the  public  debt  might  be  quite 
as  patriotic  as  the  man  who  had  parted  with 
it  for  a  price.  He  suggested  that  if  the  debt 
was  thus  purchased  in  the  confidence  that  it 
would  rise  to  par,  the  act  was  a  proof  of  the 
patriotism  of  the  purchaser,  and  it  would  be 
a  sorry  return  for  this  confidence  to  make  it 
a  reason  for  discrimination  against  him. 

But  much  more  important  from  the  public 
point  of  view,  he  pointed  out,  was  the  sanc- 
tity of  contracts  guaranteed  by  the  new  Con- 
stitution, and  absolutely  required  to  give  a 


ESTABLISHING  PUBLIC  CREDIT    53 

stable  character  to  the  securities  of  the 
government.  If  the  government  were  to  dis- 
criminate between  the  original  holders  of  the 
debt  and  other  holders,  he  made  it  clear  that 
a  degree  of  discredit  would  be  cast  on  all  the 
obligations  of  the  United  States,  no  matter 
in  whose  hands  they  were  found,  which  would 
tend  to  defeat  the  end  and  aim  of  all  his 
measures,  —  the  restoration  of  public  credit. 
Upon  this  point  he  said :  — 

"  The  nature  of  the  contract,  in  its  origin, 
is,  that  the  public  will  pay  the  sum  ex- 
pressed in  the  security,  to  the  first  holder 
or  his  assignee.  The  intent  in  making  the 
security  assignable  is,  that  the  proprietor 
may  be  able  to  make  use  of  his  property,  by 
selling  it  for  as  much  as  it  may  be  worth  in 
the  market,  and  that  the  buyer  may  be  safe 
in  the  purchase. 

"Every  buyer,  therefore,  stands  exactly 
in  the  place  of  the  seller,  has  the  same  right 
with  him  to  the  identical  sum  expressed  in 
the  security,  and  having  acquired  that  right, 
by  fair  purchase,  and  in  conformity  to  the 
original  agreement  and  intention  of  the 


54  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

government,  his  claim  cannot   be   disputed 
without  manifest  injustice. 

"  The  impolicy  of  a  discrimination  results 
from  two  considerations :  one,  that  it  pro- 
ceeds upon  a  principle  destructive  of  that 
quality  of  the  public  debt,  or  the  stock  of 
the  nation,  which  is  essential  to  its  capacity 
for  answering  the  purposes  of  money^  that  is, 
the  security  of  transfer ;  the  other,  that,  as 
well  on  this  account  as  because  it  includes 
a  breach  of  faith,  it  renders  property  in  the 
funds  less  valuable,  consequently  induces 
lenders  to  demand  a  higher  premium  for 
what  they  lend,  and  produces  every  other 
inconvenience  of  a  bad  state  of  public 
credit." 

/*  One  of  the  most  serious  obstacles  which 

\confronted   Hamilton    in    carrying   out   his 

financial  policy  was  the   opposition  to  the 

'  assumption  by  the  new  federal  government 

of  the  debts  of  the  several  states  incurred 

in  the  prosecution  of  the  war.     The  states 

which  had  been  remiss  in  paying  their  quota 

for  the  general  expenses  and  those  which  had 


ESTABLISHING  PUBLIC  CREDIT    55 

not  been  called  upon  to  pay  much  for  local 
defense  did  not  see  why  a  burden  should  be 
imposed  upon  them,  even  in  equitable  pro- 
portion with  the  other  states,  for  the  purpose 
of  relieving  those  states  which  had  been 
prompt  with  their  payments  or  had  been 
compelled  to  spend  freely  for  the  protection 
of  their  own  boundaries  and  people.  This 
prejudice  Hamilton  faced  with  the  same  clear 
vision  and  resolute  purpose  as  that  against 
providing  for  the  debt  of  the  Union.  He 
set  forth  at  the  outset  that  if  these  debts 
were  to  be  paid  at  all,  whether  by  the  states 
or  by  the  Union,  "it  will  follow  that  no 
greater  revenues  will  be  required,  whether 
that  provision  be  made  wholly  by  the  United 
States,  or  partly  by  the  states  separately." 
He  pointed  out  that  the  control  of  the  entire 
matter  by  the  federal  government  would 
secure  uniformity  of  treatment  for  the  public 
creditors,  would  prevent  competition  between 
the  Union  and  the  states  for  the  sources  of 
the  revenue,  which  otherwise  might  cause 
collision  and  confusion,  and  would  secure  a 
distribution  of  taxation  more  just  to  industry 


56  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

in  all  the  states.  The  assumption  of  the 
state  debts,  moreover,  he  insisted  was  vital 
to  the  credit  of  the  Union.  Upon  this  head, 
and  upon  the  equity  of  charging  to  the 
Union  of  the  states  the  debts  which  had  been 
incurred  for  the  benefit  of  all,  Hamilton 
observed :  — 

"  Should  the  state  creditors  stand  upon  a 
less  eligible  footing  than  the  others,  it  is  un- 
natural to  expect  they  would  see  with  plea- 
sure a  provision  for  them.  The  influence 
which  their  dissatisfaction  might  have  could 
not  but  operate  injuriously,  both  for  the 
creditors  and  the  credit  of  the  United  States. 
Hence  it  is  even  the  interest  of  the  creditors 
of  the  Union,  that  those  of  the  individual 
states  should  be  comprehended  in  a  general 
provision.  Any  attempt  to  secure  to  the 
former  either  exclusive  or  peculiar  advan- 
tages would  materially  hazard  their  interests. 
,Neither  would  it  be  just  that  one  class  of 
the  public  creditors  should  be  more  favored 
than  the  other.  The  objects  for  which  both 
descriptions  of  the  debt  were  contracted  are 
in  the  main  the  same.  Indeed,  a  great  part 


ESTABLISHING  PUBLIC  CREDIT    57 

of  the  particular  debts  of  the  states  has 
arisen  from  assumptions  by  them  on  account 
of  the  Union.  And  it  is  most  equitable, 
that  the^e  should  be  the  same  measure  of 
retribution  for  all. 

•          ••••••• 

"  The  general  principle  of  it  seems  to  be 
equitable,  for  it  appears  difficult  to  conceive 
a  good  reason  why  the  expenses  for  the  par- 
ticular defense  of  a  part,  in  a  common  war, 
should  not  be  a  common  charge,  as  well  as 
those  incurred  professedly  for  the  general 
defense.  The  defense  of  each  part  is  that 
of  the  whole,  and  unless  all  the  expenditures 
are  brought  into  a  common  mass,  the  tend- 
ency must  be  to  add  to  the  calamities  suf- 
fered by  being  the  most  exposed  to  the 
ravages  of  war,  an  increase  of  burthens." 

Hamilton  found  the  public  debt  of  the 
Union  to  be  $54,124,464.56.  This  would 
not  be  a  formidable  debt  to-day,  even  with 
full  allowance  for  the  difference  in  popula- 
tion, but  it  was  formidable  for  that  time 
because  of  the  comparative  poverty  of  the 
country,  and  the  scanty  resources  for  paying 


58  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

it.  The  great  increase  in  the  productive 
power  of  man  in  our  time,  by  means  of 
machinery,  improved  means  of  communica- 
tion, and  other  devices  for  saving  labor  and 
increasing  its  efficiency,  makes  it  easy  for 
prosperous  nations  to  bear  taxation  without 
feeling  the  burden  which  would  have  para- 
lyzed industry  and  arrested  national  progress 
a  century  ago.  The  United  States  in  1790 
were  not  far  beyond  the  primitive  condition 
in  which  the  entire  sum  of  production  is  re- 
quired for  the  necessaries  of  existence,  and 
little  is  left  for  the  luxuries  of  life  and  of 
state  enterprise. 

The  total  of  the  debt,  as  computed  by 
Hamilton,  was  made  up  by  adding  the  for- 
eign debt,  $10,070,307,  with  arrears  of  in- 
terest amounting  to  $1,640,071.62,  to  the 
principal  of  the  domestic  debt,  $27,383,- 
917.74,  with  arrears  of  interest  amounting 
to  $13,030,168.20,  and  estimating  the  unli- 
quidated debt  at  $2,000,000.  The  amount 
of  the  state  debts  he  was  not  able  to  ascer- 
tain with  precision,  but  estimated  at  about 
$25,000,000.  This  made  the  total  debt  to 


ESTABLISHING  PUBLIC  CREDIT    59 

be  dealt  with  something  more  than  $75,000,- 
000.  The  annual  interest  required  at  the 
rates  provided  in  the  contract  would  amount 
to  $542,599.66  on  the  foreign  debt,  and 
$4,044,845.15  on  the  domestic  debt,  in- 
cluding that  of  the  states,  making  a  total  of 
$4,587,444.81.  While  urging  the  most  con- 
scientious fulfillment  of  obligations,  Hamil- 
ton admitted  that  this  demand  would  require 
the  extension  of  taxation  to  a  degree  and  to 
objects  which  the  true  interests  of  the  public 
creditors  themselves  forbade.  "It  is  there- 
fore to  be  hoped,"  he  said,  "  and  even  to  be 
expected,  that  they  will  cheerfully  concur 
in  such  modifications  of  their  claims,  on  fair 
and  equitable  principles,  as  will  facilitate 
to  the  government  an  arrangement  substan- 
tial, durable,  and  satisfactory  to  the  com- 
munity." 

This  arrangement  he  did  not  propose  to 
reach  by  repudiating  any  portion  of  the  debt. 
He  proposed  to  reduce  the  rate  of  interest, 
in  course  of  time,  in  accordance  with  the  de- 
cline in  the  rate  for  the  rental  of  capital 
abroad,  but  to  those  holders  of  the  debt  who 


60  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

desired  settlement  in  full  at  the  old  rates  of 
interest,  lie  made  liberal  offers.  A  number 
of  optional  plans  for  accepting  funds  at  dif- 
ferent rates  of  interest  for  different  terms 
were  presented,  which  it  is  not  necessary  to 
set  forth  in  detail.  The  statement  of  the 
first  two  will  give  an  idea  of  their  general 
character :  — 

"  First,  That,  for  every  hundred  dollars 
subscribed,  payable  in  the  debt,  (as  well  in- 
terest as  principal,)  the  subscriber  be  enti- 
tled, at  his  option,  either  to  have  two-thirds 
funded  at  an  annuity  or  yearly  interest  of 
six  per  cent.,  redeemable  at  the  pleasure 
of  the  government,  by  payment  of  the  prin- 
cipal^ and  to  receive  the  other  third  in 
lands  in  the  western  territory,  at  the  rate 
of  twenty  cents  per  acre.  Or,  to  have  the 
whole  sum  funded  at  an  annuity  or  yearly  in- 
terest of  four  per  cent,  irredeemable  by  any 
payment  exceeding  five  dollars  per  annum, 
on  account  both  of  principal  and  interest, 
and  to  receive,  as  a  compensation  for  the  re- 
duction of  interest,  fifteen  dollars  and  eighty 


ESTABLISHING  PUBLIC  CREDIT     61 

cents,  payable  in  lands,  as  in  the  preceding 
case." 

Hamilton  thus  reserved  the  right  to  re- 
deem thejdej)^  pleasure  of  the  govern- 
ment, when  new  securities  could  be  floated 
at  reduced  rates.  This  was  in  accordance 
with  the  enlightened  policy  of  governments 
before  and  since  in  availing  themselves  of 
the  increase  of  capital  and  the  improved 
condition  of  the  public  credit.  The  holder 
of  the  public  funds  could  find  no  fault  if 
he  received  back  his  principal,  while  an 
attractive  investment  at  current  rates  of 
return  upon  capital  would  be  offered  to  new 
investors  in  the  form  of  funds  at  a  reduced 
rate  of  interest,  if  such  new  funds  were  not 
acceptable  to  the  old  holders  of  the  debt. 

The  proposal  for  using  the  public  lands 
inpSt^selEneiiient  of  the  debt  was  a  happy 
device  for  employing  a  resource  of  immense 
value  to  the  country,  and  promoting  early 
settlement  of  the  great  areas  of  uncultivated 
land  which  became  the  property  of  the 
Union.  It  was  in  pursuance  of  this  compre- 


62  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

hensive  policy  that  Connecticut,  Virginia, 
and  other  states  had  ceded  to  Congress, 
even  before  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
their  indefinite  claims  to  the  great  stretches 
of  country  between  the  Allegheny  Moun- 
tains and  the  Mississippi. 


IV 

CONGRESS   SUSTAINS   HAMILTON 

THE  plans  of  Hamilton  having  been  for- 
mulated, it  remained  to  be  determined 
whether  they  should  be  adopted  by  the  law- 
making  power  or  should  remain  a  splendid 
but  abortive  monument  to  the  constructive 
skill  of  their  author.  Vigorous  opposition 
was  expected  by  Hamilton  to  the  measures 
which  he  proposed.  He  had  endeavored  to 
meet  and  disarm  such  opposition  as  far  as 
possible  in  the  careful  and  illuminating  lan- 
guage of  his  report,  but  it  soon  became  evi- 
dent that  against  nearly  all  parts  of  it  a 
bitter  and  persistent  battle  would  be  waged. 
The  owners  of  capital  and  the  commercial 
element  were  represented  in  the  Northern 
and  Eastern  States  rather  than  in  the  South, 
and  the  representatives  of  the  former  states 
.  strongly  supported  from  the  first  the  entire 
policy  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 


64  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

Rumors  were  already  abroad  that  some- 
thing was  to  be  done  to  restore  the  national 
credit,  but  it  was  not  until  the  reading  of 
Hamilton's  report  in  the  House  (January 
14,  1790)  that  the  full  scope  of  his  plans 
was  made  manifest. 

The  effect  of  the  report  was  so  favorable 
upon  the  public  credit  as  to  forge  weapons 
for  its  enemies.  This  came  about  through 
the  sudden  rise  in  the  public  funds,  and  the 
.  promptness  with  which  speculators  bought 
them  up  from  holders  who  were  ignorant  of 
their  value.  Funds  which  would  have  been 
gladly  disposed  of  at  three  shillings  to  the 
pound,  or  fifteen  per  cent,  of  their  face  value, 
at  any  time  within  the  previous  three  years, 
rose  before  noon  the  next  day  fifty  per  cent, 
of  their  quoted  price.  It  was  not  yet  certain 
that  the  project  would  be  adopted  by  Con- 
gress, but  shrewd  men  were  willing  to  dis- 
count the  future  in  much  the  same  manner 
that  brokers  in  Wall  Street  do  at  the  pre- 
sent time.  The  absence  of  a  well-organized 
stock  market,  with  the  ramifications  of  tele- 
graphic quotations  throughout  the  Union, 


CONGRESS  SUSTAINS  HAMILTON    65 

put  in  the  hands  of  the  more  daring  of 
these  speculators  an  opportunity  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  ignorance  of  others  to  an 
extent  which  would  not  be  possible  to-day. 
Agents  were  soon  scouring  the  country,  buy- 
ing up  the  certificates  of  the  debt  in  all  its 
varied  forms,  before  the  news  of  Hamilton's 
great  report  had  reached  the  humble  holders, 
some  of  whom  were  old  soldiers  or  quiet 
farmers  who  had  been  compelled  to  furnish 
supplies  for  the  army.  Jefferson  says  in 
his  Anas :  — 

"  Couriers  and  relay  horses  by  land,  and 
swift-sailing  pilot-boats  by  sea,  were  flying 
in  all  directions.  Active  partners  and  agents 
were  associated  and  employed  in  every  state, 
town,  and  county,  and  the  paper  bought  up 
at  five  shillings,  and  even  as  low  as  two 
shillings  in  the  pound,  before  the  holder 
knew  that  Congress  had  already  provided 
for  its  redemption  at  par." 

This    sudden   and    remarkable   effect   of 
Hamilton's  recommendations  put  weapons  in  / 
the  hands  of  the  enemies  of  the  project,  be- 
cause it  seemed  to  give  force  to  their  argu- 


66  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

ment  that  a  distinction  should  be  made  be- 
tween those  to  whom  the  debt  was  originally 
issued  at  par  and  the  new  holders  who  /had 
obtained  it  at  a  discount.  Long  and  bitter 
were  the  debates  hi  the  House  over  this  and 
other  branches  of  Hamilton's  project.  But ' 
it  was  so  obvious  that  a  distinction  between 
the  holders  of  the  debt  would  run  directly 
counter  to  its  character  as  negotiable  paper, 
and  would  be  almost  impossible  of  just  exe- 
cution, that  the  friends  of  the  funding  pro- 
ject easily  had  the  best  of  the  argument. 
Madison,  although  inclined  to  oppose  Ham- 
ilton, was  forced  to  admit  that  the  debt  must 
be  funded  at  par  without  discrimination. 
He  brought  forward  a  project  to  pay  the  ori- 
ginal holders  the  difference  between  par  and 
the  price  at  which  they  had  sold,  and  to  pay 
to  the  present  holders  only  what  they  had 
paid  for  the  securities.  This  was  shown  to 
be  so  impracticable  that  only  thirteen  votes 
w^re  given  for  it  in  a  House  of  forty-nine 
members  voting.  The  advocates  of  the  en- 
tire funding  project  carried  it  in  committee 
of  the  whole  (March  9,  1790)  by  a  vote  of 
31  to  26. 


CONGRESS  SUSTAINS  HAMILTON    67 

The  debates  had  so  strengthened  the  posi- 
tion of  Hamilton  that  the  wisdom  of  fund- 
ing the  debt  of  the  Union  at  par  was  now 
generally    admitted.       His    opponents    and 
those  who  feared  too  great  a  concentration 
of  power  in  the  capitalist  class  and  the  cen- 
tral  government  made    their  stand  on  the 
proposal  to  assume  the  state  debts.     When 
the    resolution   reported   by   the  committee 
of   the  whole  was  taken  up  in   the  House 
on  March  29,  several  representatives  from 
North  Carolina  appeared  in  the  House  and 
swelled  the  ranks  of  the  opposition.     North 
Carolina  had  been  late  in  accepting  the  Con- 
stitution, and   her  members    had  not    been* 
present   on  previous  votes.     When,  there^ 
fore,  a  motion    to    recommit  the   financial^ 
projects  was  made,  it  was  carried  by  a  vote ' 
of  29  to  27.     The  advocates  of  assumption  * 
were  so  indignant,  and    so  convinced    that 
one  part  of  the  project  was  as  vital  as  the* 
other,  that  they  voted  to  recommit  the  ori-  * 
ginal  funding   resolution.     Further    debate  ^ 
took  place,  but  without  shaking  the  firmness  > 
of  the  opposition  to  the  assumption  of  the 


68  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

state  debts.  The  project  was  rejected  in 
committee  (April  12)  by  a  vote  of  31  to 
29. 

The  situation  was  a  grave  one.  Hamil- 
ton felt  that  the  future  of  the  Union  was 
at  stake.  If  his  projects  were  not  adopted 
substantially  as  a  whole,  the  new  govern- 
ment would  be  without  credit  and  the  work 
of  the  Convention  of  1789  would  be  in  vain. 
The  government  at  Washington  would  be 
as  helpless  as  the  Continental  Congress  and 
its  committees  had  been.  This  opinion  was 
shared  by  all  those  who  favored  a  vigorous 
central  government,  and  practically  by  all 
the  members  of  the  party  in  Congress  which 
was  forming  in  support  of  the  measures  of 
Hamilton  and  looking  to  him  as  their  leader. 
While  casting  about  for  some  means  for 
meeting  the  emergency,  Hamilton  fell  upon 
a  plan  which  represents  one  of  the  few  cases 
in  which  he  had  recourse  to  diplomacy  in  his 
public  career.  The  question  of  the  location 
of  the  national  capital  had  been  for  some 
time  pending  in  Congress.  It  had  already 
become  involved  with  the  assumption  of  the 


CONGRESS  SUSTAINS  HAMILTON    69 

state  debts.  A  strong  bid  had  been  made 
by  the  opponents  of  assumption  for  the 
five  votes  of  Pennsylvania  by  the  offer  to 
locate  the  capital  for  fifteen  years  at  Phila- 
delphia. 

The  importance  of  having  Congress  and 
its  officials  in  a  given  city  represented  more 
at  that  time,  in  spite  of  the  small  size  of 
the  body  and  the  relative  insignificance  of 
the  interests  before  it,  than  would  be  the 
case  to-day  with  either  of  the  great  commer- 
cial cities  of  New  York,  Boston,  or  Phila- 
delphia. Local  interests  played  the  same 
part  then  as  now  in  political  manoauvring, 
and  possession  of  the  capital  looked  larger 
in  the  eyes  of  some  members  than  the  finan- 
cial policy  of  the  Union.  In  the  sarcastic 
language  of  Professor  McMaster,  "  The  state 
debts  might  remain  unpaid,  the  credit  of  the 
nation  might  fall,  but  come  what  might, 
the  patronage  of  Congress  must  be  drawn 
from  New  York  and  distributed  among  the 
grog-shops  and  taverns  of  Philadelphia." 

Hamilton  took  advantage  of  this  situation 
to  save  assumption  and  to  fix  the  financial 


70  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

policy  of  the  United  States.  The  Senate 
had  rejected  the  proposal  to  establish  the 
capital  at  Philadelphia,  and  when  the  project 
came  back  to  the  House,  Baltimore  was 
substituted  by  a  majority  of  two.  The 
Pennsylvanians  and  their  friends  in  the 
Senate  retaliated  by  mutilating  the  funding 
bill  and  daring  the  assumptionists  to  reject 
it.  The  latter  held  to  their  position  and  re- 
jected the  bill,  35  to  23.  It  was  while  mat- 
ters were  in  this  acute  stage,  while  threats 
were  made  on  behalf  of  the  North  that  the 
Union  would  be  broken  up  if  assumption 
were  not  carried,  that  Hamilton  one  day  in 
front  of  the  President's  house  met  Thomas 
Jefferson.  Jefferson  had  recently  returned 
from  France  to  assume  the  position  of  Sec- 
retary of  State.  What  followed  is  best  told 
in  Jefferson's  own  words,  because  he  after- 
wards claimed  that  he  had  been  "  duped " 
by  Hamilton  and  acted  without  knowledge 
of-  the  effect  of  what  he  was  doing.  Jeffer- 
son's account  of  the  matter  is  as  follows :  — 
"  As  I  was  going  to  the  President's  one 
day,  I  met  him  (Hamilton)  in  the  street. 


CONGRESS  SUSTAINS  HAMILTON    71 

He  walked  me  backwards  and  forwards  be- 
fore the  President's  door  for  half  an  hour. 
He  painted  pathetically  the  temper  into 
which  the  legislature  had  been  wrought; 
the  disgust  of  those  who  were  called  the 
creditor  states :  the  danger  of  the  secession 
of  their  members,  and  the  separation  of  the 
states.  He  observed  that  the  members  of 
the  administration  ought  to  act  in  concert ; 
that  though  this  question  was  not  of  my 
department,  yet  a  common  duty  should 
make  it  a  common  concern ;  that  the  Presi- 
dent was  the  centre  on  which  all  adminis- 
trative questions  ultimately  rested,  and  that 
all  of  us  should  rally  around  him,  and  sup- 
port, with  joint  efforts,  measures  approved 
by  him ;  and  that  the  question  having  been 
lost  by  a  small  majority  only,  it  was  prob- 
able that  an  appeal  from  me  to  the  judg- 
ment and  discretion  of  some  of  my  friends 
might  effect  a  change  in  the  vote,  and  the 
machine  of  government,  now  suspended, 
might  be  again  set  into  motion.  I  told  him 
that  I  was  really  a  stranger  to  the  whole 
subject;  that  not  having  yet  informed  my- 


72  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

self  of  the  system  of  finance  adopted,  I  knew 
not  how  far  this  was  a  necessary  sequence  ; 
that  undoubtedly,  if  its  rejection  endangered 
a  dissolution  of  our  Union  at  this  incipient 
stage,  I  should  deem  that  the  most  unfortu- 
nate of  all  consequences,  to  avert  which  all 
partial  and  temporary  evils  should  be  yielded. 
I  proposed  to  him,  however,  to  dine  with  me 
the  next  day,  and  I  would  invite  another 
friend  or  two,  bring  them  into  conference 
together,  and  I  thought  it  impossible  that 
reasonable  men,  consulting  together  coolly, 
could  fail,  by  some  mutual  sacrifices  of  opin- 
ion, to  form  a  compromise  which  was  to  save 
the  Union.  The  discussion  took  place.  I 
could  take  no  part  in  it  but  an  exhortatory 
one,  because  I  was  a  stranger  to  the  circum- 
stances which  should  govern  it.  But  it  was 
finally  agreed,  that  whatever  importance 
had  been  attached  to  the  rejection  of  this 
proposition,  the  preservation  of  the  Union 
an<J  of  concord  among  the  states  was  more 
important,  and  that,  therefore,  it  would  be 
better  that  the  vote  of  rejection  should  be 
rescinded,  to  effect  which  some  members 


CONGRESS  SUSTAINS  HAMILTON    73 

should  change  their  votes.  But  it  was  ob- 
served that  this  pill  would  be  peculiarly  bit- 
ter to  the  Southern  States,  and  that  some 
concomitant  measure  should  be  adopted  to 
sweeten  it  a  little  to  them.  There  had  been 
projects  to  fix  the  seat  of  government  either 
at  Philadelphia  or  at  Georgetown  on  the 
Potomac ;  and  it  was  thought  that  by  giv- 
ing it  to  Philadelphia  for  ten  years,  and  to 
Georgetown  permanently  afterwards,  this 
might,  as  an  anodyne,  calm  in  some  degree 
the  ferment  which  might  be  excited  by  the 
other  measure  alone.  Some  two  of  the 
Potomac  members  (White  and  Lee,  but 
White  with  a  revulsion  of  stomach  almost 
convulsive)  agreed  to  change  their  votes, 
and  Hamilton  undertook  to  carry  the  other 
point.  In  doing  this,  the  influence  he  had 
established  over  the  eastern  members,  with 
the  agency  of  Eobert  Morris  with  those  of 
the  Middle  States,  effected  his  side  of  the 
engagement." 

Hamilton  had  little  of  the  state  pride 
which  influenced  the  men  of  Massachusetts, 
New  York,  Virginia,  or  of  any  other  state 


74  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

who  had  grown  up  on  the  soil  won  by  their 
English  ancestors  by  their  blood  or  the  sweat 
of  their  brows.  To  him  the  question  of  the 
location  of  the  capital  seemed  insignificant 
in  comparison  with  the  foundation  of  the 
Union  upon  the  rock  of  a  comprehensive 
financial  policy.  It  is  significant  of  the 
commanding  influence  which  the  young  sec- 
retary had  acquired,  and  the  well-knit  party 
which  was  gathering  around  him,  that  he 
had  no  difficulty  in  carrying  his  part  of  the 
programme  for  seating  the  capital  eventu- 
i  ally  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac.  The  bill 
I  to  remove  the  capital  was  passed  on  July  9, 
11790,  by  a  majority  of  three,  and  the  as- 
sumption of  the  state  debts  was  carried  soon 
after.  The  form  of  the  assumption  differed 
somewhat  from  the  proposal  of  Hamilton, 
but  it  accomplished  the  result  at  which  he 
aimed.  A  specific  sum,  $21,500,000,  was 
assumed  by  the  government  and  distributed 
among  the  states  in  set  proportions.  The 
project  passed  the  Senate  July  22,  by  a  vote 
of  14  to  12,  and  the  House  on  July  24,  by 
a  vote  of  34  to  28.  A  great  step  was  thus 


CONGRESS  SUSTAINS  HAMILTON    75 

taken  in  the  consolidation  of  the  Union,  and 
notice  was  given  to  the  world  that  the 
United  States  proposed  to  pay  their  debts 
and  fulfill  with  scrupulous  honor  their  finan- 
cial obligations. 


STRENGTHENING  THE   BONDS   OF  UNION 

THE  funding  of  the  debt  was  only  one  of 
several  parts  of  the  policy  of  Hamilton  for 
putting  the  new  government  upon  a  solvent 
and  firm  basis.  The  session  of  Congress 
which  began  in  December,  1790,  witnessed 
the  presentation  of  his  report  in  favor  of  a 
national  bank0  This  report,  like  that  on 
the  debt,  showed  careful  study  of  the  sub- 
ject in  its  theoretical  as  well  as  practical  as- 
pects. Hamilton  referred  in  opening  to  the 
successful  operation  of  public  banks  in  Italy, 
Germany,  Holland,  England,  and  France. 
He  then  went  on  to  point  out  some  of  their 
specific  advantages  in  concentrating  capital 
and  permitting  the  easy  transfer  of  credit. 
He  declared  that  such  a  bank  would  afford 
"  greater  facility  to  the  government,  in  ob- 
y  aid,  especially  in  sudden 


emergencies."     It  would  also  facilitate  the 


STRENGTHENING  BONDS  O, 

payment  of    taxes,   by  enabling 
to  borrow  from   the  bank  and  by  ». 
which  it  would  give  in  the  transfer  of  fun 
He  did  not  shrink  from  declaring  that  the 
country  would  benefit  if  foreigners  invested 
in  the  bank  shares,  since  this  would  bring 
so  much  additional  capital  into  the  United 
States.       Hamilton   then   pointed   out   the 
vital  distinction  between  government  paper 
issues  and  bank  paper.     He  laid  down  thus 
the  fundamental  principle  of  a  well-regulated 
bank-note  currency :  — 

"Among  other   material   differences   be- 
tween a  paper  currency,  issued  by  the  mere 

authority  of  government,  and  one  issued  by 
a  bank,  payable  in  coin,  is  this  :  That,  in  •* 
the  first  case,  there  is  no  standard  to  which 
an  appeal  can  be  made,  as  to  the  quantity 
which  will  only  satisfy,  or  which  will  sur- 
charge the  circulation :  in  the  last,  that 
standard  results  from  the  demand.  If  more 
should  be  issued  than  is  necessary,  it  will 
return  upon  the  bank.  Its  emissions,  as 
elsewhere  intimated,  must  always  be  in  a 
compound  ratio  to  the  fund  and  the  de- 


X. 

p 


.XANDER  HAMILTON 

/hence  it  is  evident,  that  there  is 
Cation  in  the  nature  of  the  thing  ; 

ale  the  discretion  of  the  government  is 
the  only  measure  of  the  extent  of  the  emis- 
sions, by  its  own  authority." 

The  bank  which  Hamilton  proposed  was 
rivate  in  its  ownership,  but  the  United 
States  were  to  pledge  themselves  not  to 
authorize  any  similar  institution  during  its 
continuance.  The  capital  of  the  bank  was 
not  to  exceed  $10,000,000,  for  which  the 
President  of  the  United  States  might  sub- 
scribe 12,000,000  on  behalf  of  the  govern- 
ment. It  was  further  provided  that  three 
fourths  of  the  amount  of  each  share  might 
be  paid  in  the  public  debt  instead  of  gold 
and  silver. 

It  was  the  purpose  of  Hamilton  not 
merely  to  create  a  useful  financial  institu- 
tion, in  which  the  government  would  be  able 
to  keep  its  deposits,  but  to  weld  the  mone- 
tary system  of  the  country  into  an  harmo- 
nious whole.  The  result  of  this,  which  he 
foresaw  and  intended,  was  to  bind  the  pro- 
perty-owning classes  to  the  interests  of  the 


STRENGTHENING  BONDS  OF  UNION    79 

new  government.  The  effect  was  much  the 
same  as  the  creation  of  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land by  the  loan  of  its  capital  to  the  gov- 
ernment, which  bound  the  moneyed  classes 
firmly  to  King  William,  through  the  know- 
ledge that  the  debt  and  the  solvency  of  the 
bank  depended  on  the  perpetuation  of  his 
government  and  the  exclusion  of  the  Stuart 
Pretender.  The  tendency  of  Hamilton's 
project  was  clearly  seen  by  Jefferson  and 
other  democratic  leaders,  and  did  not  fail 
to  arouse  their  hostility.  It  was  not  long 
before  they  promptly  took  sides  against  the 
national  bank.  Jefferson  wrote  regarding 
the  meetings  of  the  cabinet  at  this  time  that 
"Hamilton  and  myself  were  daily  pitted  in 
the  cabinet  like  two  cocks." 

There  was  something  deeper  involved, 
from  the  standpoint  of  Jefferson,  than  the  ^ 
mere  question  of  bringing  the  moneyed  class 
to  the  side  of  the  government.  The  latter 
object  was  sufficiently  distasteful  to  him,  but 
the  extension  of  the  powers  granted  by  the 
Constitution  beyond  those  which  were  directly 
enumerated  in  the  document  involved  a 


t 


80  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

question  of  public  policy  and  constitutional 
law  which  afforded  the  basis  for  the  creation 
of  two  great  national  parties.  The  Consti- 
tution did  not  anywhere  grant  in  terms  to 
the  government  the  power  to  establish  a 
national  bank.  Even  Hamilton  did  not 
pretend  to  put  his  finger  on  the  specific  au- 
thority for  his  new  project.  He  advanced  a 
doctrine  which  was  eagerly  embraced  by  the 
party  which  was  growing  up  around  him, 
but  which  was  as  resolutely  opposed  by  the 
other  party.  This  was  the  doctrine  of  the 
implied  powers  granted  to  the  new  govern- 
ment by  the  Constitution.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  the  Constitution  would  have  been 
ratified  by  Virginia  and  other  states  if  this 
doctrine  had  been  set  forth  and  defended  in 
the  state  conventions  by  the  friends  of  the 
Constitution.  This  by  no  means  implies  that 
the  policy  and  doctrine  of  Hamilton  were 
not  wise  and  far-sighted.  Hamilton  had 
definite  aims  before  him,  and  it  was  his  legit- 
imate mission  to  educate  public  sentiment 
up.  to  the  point  of  accepting  those  aims  and 
of  granting  him  the  means  for  carrying  them 
out. 


STRENGTHENING  BONDS  OF  UNION   81 

The  doctrine  of  the  "  implied  powers  " 
rested  upon  the  theory  that  unless  they  were 
directly  prohibited  by  the  Constitution,  all 
powers  were  granted  to  the  government  by 
implication  which  were  foundjagfigggaiS^ii. 
jrmp.pr  for  carrying  out  the  powers  specifi- 
cally granted.  Jefferson  came  to  believe,  if 
he  did  not  believe  at  the  outset,  that  the 
government  was  one  of  delegated  powers 
which  were  strictly  limited  to  those  enumer- 
ated in  the  Constitution.  The  doctrine  of 
Hamilton,  from  this  point  of  view,  was  revo- 
lutionary. It  meant  the  conversion  of  a 
government  holding  limited  delegations  of 
power  from  the  people  and  the  states  into  a 
government  having  supreme  power,  capable 
of  taking  an  infinite  variety  of  measures 
whenever  Congress,  in  the  exercise  of  its  dis- 
cretion, believed  that  such  measures  would 
contribute  to  the  well-being  of  the  Union. 
The  state  governments,  coming  closer  to  the 
people  than  the  federal  government,  were 
most  directly  threatened  by  this  assumption 
of  power,  and  it  was  as  the  champions  of  state 
rights  as  well  as  democratic  ideas  that  Jef- 


82  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

ferson  and  his  friends  took  their  ground  as 
the  advocates  of  the  strict  construction  of 
the  Constitution. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the 
proposal  to  create  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  called  forth  in  Congress  prolonged 
and  heated  debates.  But  the  policy  of  Ham- 
ilton had  been  so  far  successful  in  restoring 
the  public  credit  that  he  carried  the  project 
for  the  national  bank  through  both  houses, 
and  it  was  laid  before  the  President  for  his 
approval.  Washington  had  watched  with 
interest  the  struggle  in  the  two  houses,  and 
was  somewhat  impressed  by  the  weight  of 
the  argument  against  the  constitutional 
power  of  Congress  to  establish  the  bank. 
The  cabinet  was  divided.  Jefferson  and 
Randolph  were  against  the  constitutionality 
of  the  bill.  Hamilton  and  Knox  were  in 
favor  of  it.  Washington  asked  each  of  them 
to  give  him  in  writing  the  reasons  for  his 
opinion.  He  weighed  them  carefully  and 
then  affixed  his  signature  to  the  bill  (Feb- 
ruary 25,  1791).  The  new  project  realized 
all  the  benefits  which  Hamilton  expected. 


STRENGTHENING  BONDS  OF  UNION   83 

Washington,  in  his  tour  of  the  Southern 
States  in  the  spring  of  1791,  found  the  sen- 
timent for  union  strengthening  and  the  coun- 
try recovering  from  the  prostration  of  the 
era  of  bad  money  and  political  uncertainty 
which  had  followed  the  Revolution.  He  de- 
clared in  a  letter  written  after  his  return : 

"  Our  public  credit  stands  on  that  ground,  A 
which,  three  years  ago,  it  would  have  been 
madness  to  have  foretold.  The  astonishing 
rapidity  with  which  the  newly  instituted 
bank  was  filled,  gives  an  unexampled  proof 
of  the  resources  of  our  countrymen  and  their 
confidence  in  public  measures.  On  the  first 
day  of  opening  the  subscription,  the  whole  \ 
number  of  shares  (twenty  thousand)  were 
taken  up  in  one  hour,  and  application  made 
for  upwards  of  four  thousand  shares  more 
than  were  granted  by  the  institution,  besides 
many  others  that  were  coming  in  from  vari- 
ous quarters." 

How  much  was  likely  to  be  done  by  a  na- 
tional bank  to  bind  together  the  commercial 
interests  of  different  sections  of  the  country 
can  hardly  be  appreciated  to-day.  At  that 


84  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

time  there  were  only  four  banks  in  the  coun- 
try ;  none  of  these  was  ten  years  old,  and 
their  combined  capital  was  only  $1,950,000. 
The  Bank  of  the  United  States  was  author- 
ized to  establish  offices  of  discount  and  de- 
posit in  all  the  states  and  to  distribute  parts 
of  its  capital  among  eight  branches  in  the 
chief  cities  of  the  country.  It  was  the  drafts 
of  these  branches  upon  each  other,  and  their 
means  for  reducing  to  a  uniform  and  rea- 
sonable rate  the  cost  of  transferring  funds, 
which  contributed  to  knit  all  parts  of  the 
country  together  in  commercial  matters  and 
so  strengthened  the  bond  of  political  union. 
The  bank  did  not  make  regular  reports  to 
the  Treasury  Department,  but  its  success  is 
indicated  by  a  special  report  communicated 
to  Congress  by  Secretary  Gallatin  (January 
24,  1811),  which  showed  resources  of  $24,- 
183,046.  The  average  annual  dividends 
paid  upon  the  stock  up  to  March,  1809, 
were  over  eight  per  cent. 

So  invaluable  were  the  operations  of  the 
.Bank  of  the  United  States  to  the  public 
treasury  that  Jefferson  himself  when  Presi- 


STRENGTHENING  BONDS  OF  UNION   86 

dent  came  to  its  support.     His  support  was 
perhaps  never  very  hearty,  and  was  due  to 
Albert  Gallatin,  his  Secretary  of  the  Trea- 
sury, whose  foresight  and  ability  give  him  a 
rank  next  to  Hamilton  among  the  able  men        /'. 
who  have  presided  over  the  national  finances.  '*r 
Gallatin  made  a  strong  report  in  1809,  re- 
commending that  the  charter  of  the  bank 
be  renewed  upon   its    expiration   in   1811, 
with  an  increase  of  capital  and  wider  powers. 
A  new  charter  was  voted  in  the  House,  but 
the  bill  was  not  acted  on  in  the  Senate,  and/ 
before  the  next  session  the  opposition  of  the 
state  bankers  had  rallied  sufficient  strength 
to  defeat  the  recharter.     The  second  United 
States  Bank  was  authorized  in  1816,  under 
the  administration  of  Madison  and  with  his         ^ 
approval,  but  its  career  was  terminated  in    * 
1836,  as  the  result  of  the  political  hostility 
of  President  Jackson. 

It  was  not  until  after  the  grant  of  this  sec- 
ond charter  that  the  question  of  the  power 
of  Congress  to  establish  a  bank  came  di- 
rectly before  the  Supreme  Court  in  1819. 
At  the  head  of  this  court  sat  John  Marshall, 


86  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

who  next  to  Hamilton,  perhaps,  did  more 
than  any  other  man  to  strengthen  and  ex- 
tend the  powers  of  the  general  government. 
The  jealousy  of  the  state  banks  had  led  the 
State  of  Maryland  to  impose  a  discriminat- 
ing tax  on  the  Bank  of  the  United  States. 
If  the  right  to  levy  such  a  tax  had  been  ad- 
mitted, the  Bank  would  have  been  com- 
pletely at  the  mercy  of  the  states,  and  one 
of  the  chief  purposes  of  its  creation  would 
have  been  defeated.  In  order  to  sustain  the 
right  of  the  bank  to  exemption  from  taxa- 
tion, it  was  necessary  to  prove  that  it  was  a 
constitutional  instrument  of  federal  power. 
Hence  the  question  of  the  power  of  Congress 
to  create  such  a  corporation  came  directly 
before  the  court. 

Hamilton  found  the  power  to  create  a 
bank  partly  in  the  preamble  to  the  Constitu- 
tion, which  declares  that  the  people  of  the 
vUnited  States  have  adopted  it  in  order  to 
"  pramotgjbhe  general  welfare,"  but  more 
particularly  in  that  concluding  phrase  of  the 
'clause  defining  the  powers  of  •  Congress, 
which  declares  that  that  body  shall  have 


STRENGTHENING  BONDS  OF  UNION  87  S 

authority  "  to  make  all  laws  which  shall  be\  * 
necessarYjand^pro^er  for  carrying  into  ex- 
ecution the  foregoing  powers,  and  all  other 
powers  vested  by  this  Constitution  in  the 
government  of  the  United  States  or  in  any 
department  or  officer  thereof."  Marshall, 
in  the  series  of  great  decisions  by  which  he 
strengthened  the, power  of  the  Union,  often 
made  use  of  these  provisions  to  justify  his 
reasoning.  In  one  of  the  most  famous  of 
these  decisions  (McCulloch  'ys.  Maryland), 
he  sustained  the  constitutionality  of  the 
bank  as  an  instrument  of  federal  power 
and  denied  the  right  of  the  states  to  levy 
upon  its  property.  He  declared  that  the 
power  to  tax  involved  the  power  to  destroy, 
and  that  if  the  federal  government  had  not 
the  power  to  withdraw  its  creations  from 
discriminating  legislation  by  the  states,  the 
latter  might  tax  the  mail  or  the  mints,  the 
papers  of  the  custom-houses,  or  the  forms 
of  judicial  process. 

The  view  of  Hamilton  regarding  the 
power  of  the  federal  government  to  create 
a  bank  was  thus  sustained  in  emphatic  terms 


88  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

by  the  highest  court  in  the  land.  It  was 
partly  his  policy  in  providing  for  the  bank 
and  demonstrating  its  usefulness,  with  his 
other  measures  to  develop  the  powers  of  the 
central  government,  which  made  possible  the 
decisions  of  Marshall.  If  the  question  of 
the  right  to  incorporate  a  bank  could  have 
been  brought  before  the  court  at  the  begin- 
ning, before  the  institution  had  proved  its 
value,  and  if  men  like  Jefferson  and  Madi- 
son had  been  upon  the  bench,  there  is  at 
least  room  for  doubt  whether  a  decision 
would  have  been  rendered  in  favor  of  a 
power  which  is  not  granted  directly  to  the 
government  by  the  Constitution.  But  by 
the  resolute  executive  policy  of  Hamilton 
and  the  broad  judicial  constructions  of 
Marshall,  the  functions  of  the  new  govern- 
ment were  extended  to  all  those  great 
objects  necessary  to  create  a  vigorous  and 
united  nation. 

The  many  other  measures  of  Hamilton 
were  directed  by  the  same  singleness  of 
purpose  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  the 
government  and  consolidate  the  Union. 


STRENGTHENING  BONDS  OF  UNION    89 

The  report  on  the  mint  followed  the  pre- 
vious reports  of  Jefferson  in  recommending 
the  adoption  of  the  dollar  as  the  unit  of 
value.  Hamilton  observed  that  "  upon  the 
whole,  it  seems  to  be  most  advisable,  as  has 
been  observed,  not  to  attach  the  unit  exclu- 
sively to  either  of  the  metals ;  because  this 
cannot  be  done  effectually,  without  destroy- 
ing the  office  and  character  of  one  of  them 
as  money,  and  reducing  it  to  the  situation 
of  a  mere  merchandise."  He  believed,  how- 
ever, that  care  should  be  taken  to  regulate 
the  proportion  between  the  metals  with  an 
eye  to  their  average  commercial  value.  He 
pointed  out  the  danger  of  undervaluing 
either  metal,  and  the  inevitable  result,  in 
case  of  a  difference  of  ratio  in  two  countries, 
"  if  other  things  were  equal,  that  the  great- 
est part  of  the  gold  would  be  collected  in 
one,  and  the  greatest  part  of  the  silver  in 
the  other." 

This  discussion  of  the  subject  took  place 
at  a  time  when  monetary  principles  were 
not  very  well  fixed,  when  the  standard  and 
the  state  of  the  currency  had  hardly  been 


90  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

settled  on  an  orderly  basis  in  any  country, 
and  when  the  means  of  transportation  for 
the  precious  metals  were  much  slower  and 
less  efficient  than  under  modern  conditions, 
and  the  cost  was  much  greater.  Hamilton 
endeavored  to  find  the  true  commercial  rela- 
tion between  gold  and  silver  as  a  basis  for 
the  coinage  values,  in  the  hope  that  this 
would  not  change  sufficiently  to  upset  a 
bimetallic  system  founded  upon  such  a  basis. 
He  was  not  a  victim  of  the  delusion  that 
government  can  arbitrarily  give  value  by 
law  to  money,  but  declared,  "  There  can 
hardly  be  a  better  rule  in  any  country  for 
the  legal,  than  the  market  proportion ;  if 
this  can  be  supposed*  to  have  been  produced 
by  the  free  and  steady  course  of  commercial 
principles." 

The  report  on  manufactures  and  the  bill 
providing  for  an  excise  were  parts  of  the 
project  of  Hamilton  for  building  up  a  vigor- 
ous and  self-supporting  nation.  The  report 
on  manufactures  was  not  presented  to 
Ctogress  until  the  beginning  of  the  long 
session  at  the  close  of  1791,  and  was  not 


STRENGTHENING  BONDS  OF  UNION    91 

carried  out  in  legislation.  It  consisted 
chiefly  of  an  argument  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  young  industries  in  an  undeveloped 
country.  Hamilton  strongly  favored  the 
diversification  of  the  industries  of  the 
country  between  agriculture  and  various 
forms  of  manufacture,  because  he  believed 
it  would  contribute  to  the  solidity  of  the 
industrial  system  and  to  the  financial  inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States.  His  con- 
ception of  the  best  method  for  promoting 
American  industries  differed  materially, 
however,  from  more  recent  developments  of 
the  protective  system.  He  recommended 
bounties  and  premiums  in  many  cases  in 
preference  to  protectionist  customs  duties, 
in  order  to  avoid  the  rise  in  the  price  of 
articles  to  the  consumer  which  often  results 
from  such  duties.  The  customs  duties 
which  he  proposed,  moreover,  ranged  only 
from  seven  and  a  half  to  fifteen  per  cent., 
and  the  latter  rate  was  to  be  levied  on  only 
a  few  articles. 

The  country  was  not  yet  ripe  for  exten- 
sive industrial  enterprises.     The  manufac- 


92  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

tures  then  existing  were  chiefly  for  supplying 
local  needs,  the  factory  system  had  not  been 
introduced,  and  the  capital  had  not  been 
accumulated  for  the  creation  of  large  estab- 
lishments. The  country  needed  many  for- 
eign manufactured  articles  to  put  it  upon 
the  highroad  to  industrial  development,  and 
it  was  at  a  much  later  period  that  the  manu- 
facturing interests  acquired  the  power  which 
enabled  them  to  increase  the  scale  of  duties. 
When  this  time  came,  they  turned  to  the 
arsenal  of  Hamilton's  report  for  weapons 
in  support  of  the  policy  of  diversifying 
industries ;  but  they  used  these  weapons  in 
behalf  of  a  scale  of  duties  which  was  not 
recommended  by  him  and  they  ignored  his 
arguments  for  premiums  and  bounties  for 
the  protection  of  the  consumer  against  ex- 
cessive prices. 

Whether  Hamilton  would  have  favored 
the  policy  of  protection  in  its  later  develop- 
ments, it  is  useless  to  inquire.  It  is  idle  to 
claim  for  any  thinker  of  the  past  that  he 
anticipated  all  future  discoveries  and  reason- 
ing in  the  fields  of  politics  or  economics. 


STRENGTHENING  BONDS  OF  UNION   93 

It  is  not  necessary,  in  order  to  give  a  states- 
man a  high  place  in  history,  to  worship 
blindly  all  that  he  did  or  said  or  to  make 
such  deeds  and  words  an  authority  for  later 
generations.  What  can  be  said  of  Hamil- 
ton without  reasonable  ground  of  denial  is 
that  he  did  not  recommend  in  any  of  his 
writings  the  high  scale  of  duties  advocated 
by  some  protectionists  in  recent  years.  On 
the  contrary,  he  urged  a  scale  of  duties 
which  would  be  treated  by  the  protectionist 
of  to-day  as  below  even  the  level  of  a  "  tariff 
for  revenue  only."  That  his  ideas  were  far 
from  extreme  is  indicated  by  the  project 
which  he  drew  up  in  1794  for  a  reciprocity 
treaty  with  Great  Britain,  which  proposed 
to  limit  American  import  duties  on  the  lead- 
ing textiles  and  manufactured  articles  of 
metal  to  ten  per  cent,  of  their  value.  He 
even  criticised  Jefferson's  message  of  1801 
for  recommending  the  repeal  of  the  internal 
revenue  taxes,  upon  the  ground  that  the 
duties  on  imports  were  high  and  that  if  any 
taxes  were  to  be  repealed,  they  should  be 
those  which  weighed  on  commerce  and  navi- 
gation. 


94  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

A  measure  which  led  to  more  immediate 
results  than  the  report  on  manufactures  was 
the  report  on  the  excise.  Hamilton  found 
it  necessary,  in  order  to  obtain  sufficient 
funds  to  meet  the  interest  on  the  debt  and 
other  charges,  to  recommend  an  excise  tax 
upon  distilled  liquors  produced  in  the 
United  States.  The  bill  passed  Congress 
in  January,  1791,  and  was  soon  put  in 
force.  Violent  resistance  was  made  in 
western  Pennsylvania,  where  the  manufac- 
ture of  whiskey  was  more  extensively  carried 
on  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  Union. 
The  federal  collector  for  Washington  and 
Allegheny  was  tarred  and  feathered,  and 
deputy  marshals  did  not  dare  serve  writs 
against  those  guilty  of  the  outrage.  Wash- 
ington's journey  through  the  South  had  a 
good  effect  in  softening  the  opposition  to 
the  law,  which  first  showed  itself  in  Virginia 
and  North  Carolina;  but  in  Pennsylvania 
conditions  went  from  bad  to  worse,  until  it 
became  necessary  to  give  the  federal  gov- 
ernment additional  powers  for  collecting  the 
tax  and  putting  down  insurrection.  Masked 


STRENGTHENING  BONDS  OF  UNION   95 

mobs  terrorized  those  who  were  inclined  to 
obey  the  law,  and  forced  them  to  publish  the 
injury  done  to  their  stills.  In  order  to  pro- 
tect themselves  by  embroiling  the  whole 
community,  some  of  the  insurgent  leaders 
had  the  mail  stopped,  the  militia  called  out 
on  their  side,  and  threatened  to  lay  Pitts- 
burg  in  ashes  (July,  1794). 

The  opportunity  had  come  for  testing  the 
question  whether  the  Union  was  strong 
enough  to  put  down  rebellion  by  force.  It 
was  an  opportunity  which  Hamilton  did  not 
shirk.  At  his  earnest  solicitation,  an  army 
was  dispatched  to  the  disturbed  districts. 
Washington  showed  no  hesitation  in  sup- 
porting the  authority  of  the  federal  govern- 
ment. He  obtained  a  certificate  from  a 
judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  setting  forth 
that  the  laws  of  the  United  States  were  set 
at  naught  and  that  the  courts  were  unable 
to  enforce  them.  He  then  issued  a  pro- 
clamation commanding  the  insurgents  to 
submit  to  the  laws,  and  made  a  requisition 
for  12,950  militia  from  Pennsylvania,  Mary- 
land, Virginia,  and  New  Jersey,  to  move  on 


96  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

September  1,  1794,  towards  the  disaffected 
districts. 

The  firmness  of  Washington  put  an  end 
to  the  insurrection.  Governor  Mifflin  of 
Pennsylvania,  who  had  hesitated  to  put 
down  the  disturbances  by  the  strong  hand  of 
the  state,  recovered  his  courage,  and  aided 
the  federal  government  by  proclamations 
and  by  his  full  quota  of  troops.  Hamilton 
accompanied  the  army  as  it  moved  towards 
the  West,  and  remained  with  it  after  Wash- 
n  turned  back  to  attend  the  opening 
of  Congress.  The  strong  display  of  force 
made  by  the  government  overawed  the  in- 
surgents and  finally  compelled  their  submis- 
sion. Albert  Gallatin,  although  a  citizen 
of  the  disaffected  section  and  an  opponent 
of  the  party  in  power,  exerted  his  influence 
on  behalf  of  order.  Negotiations  were  set 
on  foot  between  commissioners  of  the  Presi- 
dent, and  a  committee  of  citizens,  of  which 
Gallatin  was  a  member.  When  this  com- 
mittee met  to  decide  whether  they  would 
recommend  compliance  with  the  law,  they 
were  surrounded  by  riflemen  who  were 


STRENGTHENING  BONDS  OF  UNION   97 

ready  to  shoot  if  their  leaders  showed  signs 
of  yielding.  But  they  adopted  the  clever 
device  of  a  ballot  upon  which  both  yea 
and  nay  were  written,  with  the  option  of 
destroying  either  word.  A  small  majority 
voted  to  submit.  Some  of  the  obstinate 
spirits  held  out,  but  as  the  people  fell  away 
from  them,  they  were  arrested  and  put  on 
trial,  and  the  authority  of  the  federal  gov- 
ernment was  no  longer  disputed. 

This  suppression  of  the  "  Whiskey  Re-  > 
bellion,"  as  it  was  called,  was  one  of  the  ) 
most  important  steps  in  the  consolidation  of 
the  Union.  Many  who  had  observed  the 
aggressive  and  comprehensive  projects  of 
Hamilton,  and  seen  them  daily  binding  closer 
the  bonds  of  union,  did  not  believe  that  they 
would  stand  the  test  of  armed  conflict. 
They  feared  that  the  power  of  the  govern- 
ment would  wither  and  the  people  split  into 
warring  factions  when  men  were  called  upon 
to  march  in  arms  against  their  fellow-citi- 
zens. The  event  proved  that  the  new  gov- 
ernment had  vindicated  its  right  to  exist, 
and  that  the  sentiment  of  union  was  daily 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

gaining  a  stronger  hold  upon  the  hearts  of 
the  people.  That  this  new  power  had  not 
only  built  up  a  cohesive  financial  system, 
but  had  shown  its  capacity  to  put  down  re- 
sistance to  its  lawful  authority  with  a  strong 
hand,  was  largely  the  work  of  Hamilton. 
It  may  be  said  that  it  was  wholly  his  work, 
so  far  as  any  great  national  policy  can  be 
projected  and  carried  out  by  a  single  man, 
independently  of  the  support  of  his  associ- 
ates in  the  government  and  of  the  body  of 
public  opinion  which  make  possible  the  ex- 
ecution of  his  plans. 

The  time  had  come  when  Hamilton  felt 
that  his  constructive  work  was  done.  He 
withdrew  from  the  cabinet  (January  31, 
1795),  and  Oliver  Wolcott  of  Connecticut 
was  appointed  his  successor.  Hamilton 
chose  the  moment  for  retiring  from  office 
with  a  tact  and  judgment  unusual  with 
public  men.  He  was  moved  partly  by  the 
desire  to  provide  for  his  family  upon  a 
more  liberal  scale  than  his  modest  salary 
under  the  government  permitted.  He  was 
too  patriotic,  however,  to  have  abandoned 


STRENGTHENING  BONDS  OF  UNION   99 

I  his  post  until  he  felt  that  his  constructive 
work  was  complete.  It  was  with  conscious 
satisfaction  that  in  his  report  on  the  public 
credit  at  the  beginning  of  1795  he  was 
able  to  marshal  the  measures  already  taken 
towards  restoring  order  to  the  national 
finances  and  point  out  their  results.  The 
credit  of  the  country  had  been  raised  from  , 

the  lowest  abyss  of  dishonor  to  that  of  the  >^ 
most  enlightened  nations  of  the  old  world ;  *^"~ 
an  adequate  system  of  taxation  had  been 
provided  for  meeting  the  public  obligations ; 
the  business  interests  had  been  knit  together 
in  support  of  the  government  by  a  national 
bank  ;  a  monetary  system  had  been  estab- 
lished ;  the  Treasury  had  been  organized  in 
its  various  branches  upon  a  basis  which  has 
survived  to  our  day ;  and  finally  the  strength 
of  the  fabric  of  the  Union  and  of  the  finan- 
cial system  had  been  subjected  to  the  test 
of  a  rebellion  which,  without  serious  blood- 
shed, but  with  a  strong  display  of  force, 
had  been  fully  and  firmly  subdued. 


VI 

FOREIGN   AFFAIRS   AND   NEUTRALITY 

THE  comprehensive  measures  of  Hamilton 
for  strengthening  the  Union  gave  a  definite 
character  and  policy  to  the  Federalist  party. 
The  foundations  of  this  party,  had  been  laid 
by  the  struggle  over  the  question  whether  the 
Constitution  should  be  accepted  by  the  states ; 
v  but  the  measures  of  Hamilton  were  too  strong 
for  some  of  the  friends  of  the  Constitution, 
and  many  changes  occurred  in  the  temporary 
groupings  of  political  leaders  before  a  defi- 
nite dividing  line  was  established  between 
the  Federalism  of  Hamilton  on  the  one  side 
and  the  Democracy  of  Jefferson  and  Madison 
on  the  other.  These  two  eminent  Demo- 
cratic leaders  had,  indeed,  been  among  the 
most  earnest  supporters  of  the  Constitution. 
Madison  went  farther  than  Jefferson  in  the 
•direction  of  Federalism,  and  encountered  the 
distrust  of  the  states-rights  element  at  home ; 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS,  NEUTRALITY    101 

ibut  Jefferson,  as  has  been  already  seen,  made 
several  reports  in  the  Continental  Congress 
in  favor  of  declaring  the  United  States  a 
nation,  and  was  the  cordial  promoter  of  those 
important  steps  towards  union,  —  the  trans- 
fer of  the  Western  territory  to  Congress  and 
the  adoption  of  a  common  monetary  system. 
The  plans  of  Hamilton  in  regard  to  the 
finances,  however,  and  his  resolute  policy  of 
neutrality  between  France  and  Great  Britain, 
ran  counter  to  the  views  of  Jefferson.  It  is 
not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  latter  found 
himself  pitted  against  the  great  Federalist 
leader  upon  nearly  every  question  of  impor- 
tance which  came  before  the  cabinet.  The 
feeling  that  he  had  been  duped  in  regard 
to  the  assumption  of  the  state  debts  found 
vent  in  many  complaints,  which  finally  bore 
fruit  in  open  attacks  upon  Hamilton,  at  first 
made  indirectly  through  a  clerk  in  the  gov- 
ernment service,  and  then  directly  in  a  long 
letter  to  Washington.  Jefferson  gave  the 
post  of  translating  clerk  in  the  State  Depart- 
ment to  a  Frenchman,  Philip  Freneau,  who 
published  a  journal  known  as  the  "  National 


102  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

Gazette.'5  In  this  journal  Freneau  began  a 
series  of  bitter  and  sometimes  well-directed 
attacks  upon  the  measures  of  the  adminis- 
tration, and  particularly  those  of  Hamilton. 
A  friend  of  Jefferson  in  Virginia,  Colonel 
Mason,  approached  Washington  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1791,  and  made  a  long  and  severe 
criticism  upon  the  Treasury  measures  and 
their  effect  upon  the  people. 

Washington  continued  to  stand  above 
party,  and  sought  to  mitigate  the  friction  be- 
tween his  cabinet  officers.  Where  the  judg- 
ments of  Hamilton  and  Jefferson  differed  on 
constructive  measures,  however,  Washington 
in  nearly  every  case  became  convinced  of  the 
wisdom  of  the  recommendations  of  Hamilton. 
He  therefore  had  the  appearance  of  leaning 
to  his  side,  although  he  often  mitigated  the 
sharpness  of  the  arguments  of  his  vigorous 
young  minister  of  finance  and  endeavored  to 
temper  his  excess  of  zeal.  After  listening 
to  Mason,  Washington  felt  that  the  time 
had  come  to  interpose  in  the  growing  hostil- 
ity between  his  cabinet  ministers.  He  sub- 
mitted a  brief  summary  to  Hamilton  of  the 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS,  NEUTRALITY    103 

criticisms  which  had  been  made  upon  his 
projects  and  asked  him  to  submit  a  statement 
in  reply.  The  charges  were  directed  not 
only  against  the  substance  of  the  financial 
measures,  but  declared  that  they  fostered 
speculation,  corrupted  Congress  through 
the  ownership  of  the  public  debt  by  mem- 
bers of  that  body,  and  that  Hamilton  was 
laboring  secretly  to  introduce  aristocracy 
and  monarchy. 

It  was  not  difficult  for  Hamilton  to  brush 
away  most  of  these  criticisms.  This  he  did 
in  the  cool,  logical  manner  of  which  he  was 
a  master  by  numbering  each  objection  to  his 
policy  and  measures  and  showing  that  it  was 
not  founded  upon  solid  reasoning  or  fact. 
Hamilton  would  have  done  well  to  have 
rested  his  case  upon  his  letter  to  Washing- 
ton, but  he  was  now  convinced  that  Jeffer- 
son was  behind  the  attacks  upon  him,  and 
he  determined  to  strike  back.  He  began  a 
series  of  anonymous  communications  through 
the  Federalist  organ,  "  Fenno's  Gazette," 
which  showed  all  his  usual  vigor  and  force 
of  reasoning,  but  which  only  intensified  the 


104  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

bitterness  in  the  cabinet.  President  Wash- 
ington was  deeply  disturbed  by  this  open 
outbreak  of  hostilities,  and  remonstrated  by 
letter  with  both  Hamilton  and  Jefferson. 
Hamilton  suspended  his  attacks,  while  Jef- 
ferson confined  his  hostility  to  less  open 
methods. 

When  Congress  met  at  the  close  of  1791, 
Giles  of  Virginia,  a  loud-spoken,  hot-headed 
member  of  the  House,  called  for  accounts  of 
the  various  foreign  loans  made  by  the  gov- 
ernment. An  attempt  was  made  to  prove 
corruption  in  the  management  of  the  Trea- 
sury. Hamilton  could  not  have  found  a  bet- 
ter opportunity  for  defending  himself,  if  he 
had  sought  it.  He  was  no  longer  shut  up  to 
the  unsatisfactory  methods  of  unsigned  com- 
munications through  newspapers,  but  was  in 
a  position  to  speak  openly  and  boldly  in  ex- 
position and  defense  of  his  measures,  Report 
after  report  was  sent  to  Congress,  setting 
forth  the  operations  of  the  Treasury  with  a 
lucidity  and  power  which  silenced  the  op- 
position and  almost  overwhelmed  Madison, 
who  had  been  forced  as  a  party  leader  to 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS,  NEUTRALITY    105 

accept  the  responsibility  for  the  attacks. 
The  reports,  to  any  one  who  understood  the 
subject,  were  absolutely  convincing  of  the 
soundness  and  wisdom  of  Hamilton's  mea- 
sures. 

Jefferson,  perhaps,  had  some  right  to  com- 
plain of  the  influence  which  Hamilton  ex- 
erted over  that  department  of  the  govern- 
ment which  properly  belonged  under  his 
exclusive  jurisdiction.  This  was  the  man- 
agement of  foreign  relations.  Hamilton  had 
such  definite  and  well-considered  views  on 
foreign  policy  as  well  as  finance  that  he 
could  not  forbear  presenting  them  in  the 
cabinet.  His  superiority  in  definiteness  of 
aim  and  energy  no  doubt  led  him  to  believe 
that  he  was  fitted  for  the  functions  of  prime 
minister  and  that  he  was  justified  in  exercis- 
ing them  as  far  as  he  could.  The  course  of 
Washington  encouraged  him  to  the  extent 
that  the  President  often  gave  the  preference 
to  his  views  over  those  of  Jefferson,  but  it 
was  far  from  the  purpose  of  the  President 
to  make  any  distinction  in  rank  or  in  his 
confidence  between  his  ministers.  Hamil- 


106  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

ton,  although  an  admirer  of  the  British  polit- 
ical system,  permitted  himself  few  prejudices 
in  his  theory  of  the  foreign  policy  of  the 
United  States.  Though  often  charged  with 
British  sympathies,  he  leaned  much  less  to- 
wards Great  Britain  than  Jefferson,  through 
his  admiration  of  the  spirit  of  the  French 
Revolution,  leaned  towards  France. 

The  foreign  relations  of  the  country  began 
to  become  acute  with  the  outbreak  of  war 
between  England  and  France  in  1793. 
France  had  already  abolished  royalty,  ex- 
pelled the  nobles,  sent  Louis  XVI.  to  the 
scaffold,  and  was  on  the  eve  of  the  terrible 
massacres  which  did  so  much  to  revolt  even 
her  best  friends  outside  the  country.  The 
news  of  war  reached  the  United  States  early 
in  April,  1793.  News  came  also  that  a 
minister  from  the  French  Republic  had 
landed  at  Charleston  and  would  soon  pre- 
sent his  credentials  at  Philadelphia.  Ham- 
ilton sent  post  haste  for  Washington,  who 
was  at  Mount  Vernon.  The  outbreak  of 
war  meant  danger  to  American  commerce  on 
the  ocean  and  the  risk  of  trouble  with  both 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS,  NEUTRALITY    107 

powers  over  the  neutrality  laws.  The  seri- 
ous question  confronting  the  American  gov- 
ernment was  whether  they  should  maintain 
strict  neutrality  between  the  belligerents  or 
should  side  with  France,  to  whom  they  were 
bound  by  the  treaties  made  with  her  when 
she  came  to  the  rescue  of  the  colonies. 
When  Washington  reached  Philadelphia, 
he  found  both  Jefferson  and  Hamilton  ready 
with  suggestions  for  meeting  the  crisis,  but 
these  suggestions  differed  widely.  Jeffer- 
son, although  not  an  advocate  of  war  against 
England,  believed  that  Congress  should  be 
called  together  in  extra  session  to  deal  with 
the  emergency. 

A  stronger  programme  was  urged  upon 
the  President  by  Hamilton.  He  regarded 
the  question  of  neutrality  and  the  reception 
of  the  French  envoy  as  one  for  the  executive 
rather  than  for  Congress.  He  believed  also 
that  these  subjects  would  be  safer  in  the 
hands  of  Washington  than  midst  the .  pas- 
sions of  a  legislative  body.  He  drew  up  a 
statement,  embodying  a  series  of  questions 
regarding  the  policy  of  the  United  States, 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTOS 

%  Wi  r  Ui     Mm  tie 


FOKEIGS  AttAUtS,  SEUTBAI.ITT 

Uintad  States,  aid  a  •• 
ban  tie 


::   -.- 


aa  ?:• 


--_ 
-_, 


im  aid  o<  tike 
He  did 

of 


ItDl 

IT    ir     iiri/L: 
br  tike 


' 


110  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

on  the  way  from  Charleston  to  Philadelphia. 
He  was  everywhere  welcomed  with  such  en- 
thusiastic demonstrations  of  sympathy  for 
France  as  tended  to  make  him  believe  that 
he  was  something  more  than  the  diplomatic 
representative  of  a  foreign  country,  and 
could  safely  interfere  in  the  politics  of  the 
United  States.  As  he  approached  Philadel- 
phia (May  16,  1793)  he  found  Captain 
Bompard  of  the  French  frigate  L' Ambus- 
cade ready  to  fire  a  salute  of  three  guns,  and 
men  on  swift  horses  posted  along  the  road 
to  give  notice  to  the  citizens  of  his  coming. 

Genet  had  no  sooner  landed  at  Charles- 
ton  than  he  began  to  fit  out  privateers 
to  prey  upon  British  commerce.  The  Am- 
buscade herself,  which  t  brought  Genet  to 
Charleston,  seized  several  English  merchant 
vessels  on  her  way  to  Philadelphia,  and 
crowned  her  insolence  to  the  United  States 
by  seizing  an  English  vessel,  the  Grange, 
within  the  Delaware  capes,  in  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  United  States.  The  Grange  was 
restored  to  her  owners,  but  her  seizure  was 
only  one  of  many  flagrant  violations  of  in- 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS,  NEUTRALITY    111 

"ternational  law  which  were  systematically 
carried  out  by  the  French,  and  which  were 
defended  and  often  planned  by  Genet. 
When  the  Polly  was  stopped  from  leav- 
ing New  York  fitted  out  for  a  French 
privateer,  Hauterive,  the  French  consul,  ad- 
dressed a  note  to  Governor  Clinton,  telling 
him  it  was  not  in  a  land  where  Frenchmen 
had  spilled  their  blood  that  they  were  to 
be  thus  harassed.  When  the  Little  Sarah 
was  fitted  out  as  a  privateer  in  Philadelphia, 
Hamilton  and  Knox  urged  that  a  battery  be 
placed  on  one  of  the  islands  and  that  the 
vessel*  be  fired  upon  if  she  attempted  to  leave 
the  harbor.  Jefferson  was  hoodwinked  by 
assurances  from  Genet  that  the  vessel  would 
not  sail,  and  himself  indulged  in  some  glit- 
tering talk  against  the  United  States  join- 
ing in  "the  combination  of  kings  against 
France."  The  vessel  at  once  put  to  sea,  and 
Washington  was  so  indignant  that  Jefferson 
was  almost  driven  to  resignation. 

Hamilton  had  a  more  direct  interest  offi- 
cially in  the  demands  of  Genet  for  money 
which  was  owed  to  France.  Genet  not  only 


112  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

asked  for  the  anticipation  of  payments  soon 
to  mature,  but  insisted  that  he  should  receive 
the  whole  amount  of  the  debt.  He  threw  a 
bait  to  American  sentiment  by  the  suggestion 
that  the  money  would  be  spent  in  the  United 
States  for  provisions  and  supplies.  Hamil- 
ton treated  his  rude  demands  just  as  he 
would  those  of  any  other  creditor.  He  was  - 
willing  to  anticipate  certain  payments  when 
the  Treasury  resources  justified  it,  but  abso- 
lutely refused  to  do  more.  Genet  then 
threatened  to  pay  for  what  he  bought  with 
drafts  upon  the  Treasury.  Hamilton  coolly 
retorted  that  the  drafts  would  not  be  hon- 
ored. The  Frenchman  was  compelled  to 
consume  his  wrath,  not  exactly  in  silence, 
but  without  result  upon  the  government. 

Genet,  encouraged  by  some  of  the  ene- 
mies of  the  administration,  succeeded  in 
working  up  a  strong  pro-French  sentiment 
in  various  parts  of  the  country.  At  a  din- 
ner in  Philadelphia,  following  his  arrival, 
songs  were  sung  to  France  and  America, 
and  the  red  cap  of  liberty,  which  had  been 
forced  upon  the  reluctant  head  of  Louis 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS,  NEUTRALITY    113 

XVI.  in  the  great  demonstration  of  the  pre- 
ceding August  at  the  Tuileries,  was  passed 
around  the  table  and  successively  worn  by 
each  of  the  American  guests.  Hamilton, 
who  never  had  much  confidence  in  pure 
democracy,  went  close  to  the  other  extreme 
in  his  alarm  over  these  signs  of  public  opin- 
ion. He  felt  compelled  in  the  summer  of 
1793  to  publish  a  series  of  essays  signed 
"  Pacificus,"  defending  the  policy  of  the  ad- 
ministration. These  papers,  in  the  language 
of  Mr.  Lodge,  "served  their  purpose  of 
awakening  the  better  part  of  the  community 
to  the  gravity  of  the  situation,  and  began 
the  work  of  rallying  the  friends  of  the  gov- 
ernment to  its  active  support."  Genet  ad- 
dressed such  offensive  letters  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  State,  and  his  conduct  became  so 
intolerable,  that  the  cabinet  agreed  to  send 
the  correspondence  to  Paris  and  ask  for  his 
recall.  Genet  himself  published  a  letter 
which  revealed  his  insolence  to  the  public, 
and  caused  a  revulsion  of  sentiment  which 
brought  the  more  sober  men  of  all  parties 
to  the  side  of  Washington.  Genet's  course 


114  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

was  run,  and  in  February,  1794,  his  succes- 
sor came  out  from  France. 

Hamilton  soon  had  opportunities  for 
proving  that  his  policy  of  neutrality  was  di- 
rected as  much  against  English  as  against 
French  aggression.  When  Great  Britain 
issued  the  first  Orders  in  Council,  directing 
the  seizure  of  all  vessels  loaded  with  French 
produce,  Hamilton  declared  the  British  or- 
der  an  outragevand  urged  the  fortification 
of  the  seaports  and  the  raising  of  troops. 
He  exerted  himself,  however,  to  restrain 
popular  passion  and  preserve  peace.  He 
suggested  to  Washington  that  a  special  mis- 
sion be  sent  to  London  to  treat  with  the 
British  government.  The  idea  was  cordially 
accepted  by  Washington.  He  desired  to 
send  Hamilton,  but  the  Virginia  party, 
headed  by  Madison  and  Monroe,  strongly 
opposed  the  appointment.  They  were  em- 
bittered by  recent  party  conflicts,  and  re- 
garded Hamilton  as  too  friendly  to  British 
interests.  Chief  Justice  John  Jay  of  New 
York  was  then  recommended  by  Hamilton 
for  the  mission.  Opposition  was  made  even 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS,  NEUTRALITY    115 

to  Jay,  but  the  nomination  was  confirmed 
(April  19,  1794),  and  Hamilton  himself 
drew  the  outline  of  the  instructions  with 
which  Jay  sailed  from  New  York. 

The  conflict  over  the  treaty  which  Jay 
brought  back  in  the  following  winter  was  one 
of  the  most  bitter  ever  waged  in  American 
politics.  The  contracting  parties  to  the 
treaty  —  the  United  States  and  Great  Brit- 
ain —  looked  at  the  situation  from  widely 
different  points  of  view.  Jay  secured  the 
promise  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  British' 
troops  from  the  frontier  posts  and  an  agree- 
ment to  compensate  Americans  for  losses 
through  British  privateering.  The  last  was 
an  important  concession,  because  it  covertly 
admitted  the  British  position  in  regard  to 
privateering  to  be  in  conflict  with  interna- 
tional law.  Some  important  commercial  con- 
cessions were  also  made  by  Great  Britain, 
which  were  regarded  at  London  as  purely 
gratuitous.  But  the  treaty  failed  to  secure 
any  compensation  for  the  claims  of  Ameri- 
can citizensfor  negroes  and  other  property 
carried  away  by  the  .British  troopsT  and 


116  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

American  vessels  were  forbidden  carrying  to 
Europe  from  English  ports  or  even  from  the 
United  States  coffee  and  the  other  chief 
colonial  products.  Among  the  latter  was 
named  cotton,  which  was  then  just  becoming 
a  large  element  in  the  production  of  the 
South. 

Hamilton  himself  is  said  to  have  charac- 
terized the  treaty  as  "an  old  woman's 
treaty,"  when  he  first  read  it,  but  it  soon 
became  evident  that  it  must  be  accepted 
substantially  as  presented,  if  war  was  to  be 
avoided.  Washington  called  the  Senate  in 
extra  session  in  June,  1795,  and  after  two 
weeks'  debate  in  secret  session  the  treaty  was 
ratified  by  exactly  the  necessary  two  thirds 
^s  vote,  —  twenty  to  ten.  It  was  not  until  the 
adjournment  of  the  Senate  that  the  contents 
of  the  document  reached  the  public  through 
Senator  Mason  of  Virginia.  The  news  was 
followed  by  town  meetings  all  over  the 
country  demanding  that  President  Washing- 
ton refuse  to  exchange  ratifications.  So  in- 
T  tense  was  the  feeling  that  a  vessel  suspected 
of  being  a  British  privateer  was  seized  and 


FOREIGN  AFFAIRS,  NEUTRALITY    117 

burned  at  Boston,  a  great  meeting  in  Faneuil 
Hall  ordered  a  committee  to  take  a  protest 
to  Philadelphia,  and  Hamilton  himself  was 
stoned  and  refused  a  hearing  at  a  meeting  in  i_ 
New  York.  But  Washington  remained  calm. 
Hamilton,  as  the  responsible  leader  of  the 
party,  took  up  the  cudgels  for  ratification. 
He  submitted  an  elaborate  argument  to 
the  cabinet  (July  9,  1795),  and  with  an 
amendment  which  the  Senate  recommended 
and  Great  Britain  accepted,  the  treaty  went 
into  operation. 


VII 

HAMILTON    AS    A   PARTY   LEADER 

THE  ratification  of  the  Jay  treaty  did 
much  to  shake  the  power  of  the  Federalists, 
and  for  a  moment  seemed  to  threaten  their 
ruin.  It  was  divisions  in  their  own  ranks, 
however,  which  contributed  as  much  to  this 
event  as  any  real  blunders  in  public  policy. 
Hamilton  was  not  at  his  best  in  conciliating 
those  who  differed  from  him,  and  he  did  not 
encounter  a  more  yielding  or  tactful  associate 
in  John  Adams.  Hamilton  had  gone  out  of 
his  way  with  little  reason  at  the  first  presi- 
dential election,  in  1788,  to  secure  votes 
against  Adams.  His  avowed  object  was  to 
insure  the  election  of  Washington  by  pre- 
venting a  tie  vote  between  Washington  and 
Adams.  The  original  Constitution  authorized 
each  elector  to  vote  for  two  persons  for  Pre- 
,  sident  and  Vice-President,  without  designat- 
ing the  office  for  which  either  was  voted  for. 


HAMILTON  AS  A  PARTY  LEADER    119 

This  led  to  complications  which  were  cor- 
rected by  an  amendment  after  the  election 
of  1800.  In  the  case  of  the  first  election, 
however,  few  sane  men  doubted  that  Wash- 
ington would  have  the  majority  of  the  votes, 
and  the  only  effect  of  the  intrigue  of  Hamil- 
ton was  to  reduce  the  vote  for  Adams  to  a 
point  which  almost  caused  his  defeat.  Ham- 
ilton supported  Adams  in  the  second  elec- 
tion, in  1792,  and  the  relations  between  the 
two  men  were  reasonably  cordial. 

When  Washington  retired  from  the  pre- 
sidency, in  1797,  the  commanding  men  in  the 
Federalist  party  were  Hamilton,  John  Jay, 
Thomas  Pinckney,  and  John  Adams.  Ham- 
ilton was  the  controlling  mind  in  the  consul- 
tations of  the  leaders  rather  than  the  sort  of 
man  who  appealed  to  the  people.  He  was 
not  seriously  thought  of  by  himself  or  others 
as  a  candidate  for  President.  Jay  was  barred 
by  the  odium  attaching  to  the  treaty  with 
Great  Britain.  The  choice  was  therefore 
reduced  to  Pinckney  and  Adams.  Most  of 
the  leaders  were  for  Adams,  who  was  supe- 
rior to  Pinckney  in  Revolutionary  services 


120  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

and  ability.  It  was  determined  that  the 
Federalist  electors  should  vote  for  both 
Adams  and  Pinckney,  with  the  purpose  of 
choosing  the  former  for  President  and  the 
latter  for  Vice-President.  Hamilton  on  this 
occasion  urged  that  all  the  Federalist  electors 
should  vote  for  both  Adams  and  Pinckney. 
If  each  had  received  an  equal  number  of 
votes,  the  choice  would  have  been  thrown 
into  the  House  and  Adams  would  probably 
have  been  elected.  Hamilton  erred  in  let- 
ting it  be  known  that  he  was  indifferent 
whether  the  outcome  was  favorable  to  Adams 
or  Pinckney,  especially  when  there  was  a 
strong  suspicion  that  he  was  really  for  Pinck- 
ney. Party  discipline  had  not  then  reached 
its  modern  development,  and  votes  were 
thrown  away  by  Federalist  electors,  —  in  the 
North  to  prevent  a  majority  for  Pinckney 
over  Adams  and  in  the  South  to  prevent  the 
same  chance  in  favor  of  Adams. 

The  result  of  these  jealousies  was  that 
Adams  barely  escaped  defeat.  He  was  chosen 
by  a  plurality  of  three,  but  Pinckney  was 
beaten,  and  Jefferson,  having  the  next  highest 


HAMILTON  AS  A  PARTY  LEADER    121 

vote,  was  elected  Vice-President.  Adams  be- 
came firmly  convinced  that  Hamilton  was  his 
personal  enemy  and  would  stop  at  nothing  to 
injure  him.  That  Hamilton  was  recognized 
by  all  the  party  leaders  as  the  master  mind 
and  the  guiding  spirit  of  the  party  made  no 
difference  to  a  man  of  the  hot  temper  and 
resolute  spirit  of  John  Adams.  Tact  and 
conciliation  were  as  far  removed  from  his 
nature  as  from  that  of  any  American  public 
man.  The  indifference  of  Hamilton  whether 
he  was  beaten  by  Pinckney,  in  connection 
with  Hamilton's  intrigue  in  1788,  had  con- 
vinced Adams  that  Hamilton  did  not  feel 
proper  respect  for  him,  and  that  he  was  seek- 
ing to  dictate  the  policy  of  the  administra- 
tion and  to  thwart  and  degrade  him.  Adams 
resented  any  sort  of  suggestion  or  consulta- 
tion, and  took  delight  in  disregarding  the 
suggestions  of  Hamilton,  while  the  latter 
struck  back  through  several  members  of  the 
cabinet,  who  were  more  in  sympathy  with 
him  than  with  the  President. 

The  country  having  escaped  the  danger  of 
immediate  war  with  England   by  the  Jay 


122  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

treaty,  was  soon  threatened  with  war  with 
France.  Monroe  had  been  recalled  as  Amer- 
ican Minister  at  Paris  and  Charles  Pinck- 
ney,  who  was  sent  in  his  place,  had  been 
refused  a  reception.  Some  of  the  Federalists 
were  so  incensed  against  France  that  they 
were  eager  for  war.  Hamilton  was  opposed 
to  war  if  it  could  be  avoided,  but  was  in 
.favor  of  a  resolute  policy.  Adams,  although 
as  far  as  possible  from  sympathy  with  France, 
believed  every  reasonable  effort  should  be 
made  to  preserve  peace.  It  was  decided,  with 
the  approval  of  both  Adams  and  Hamilton, 
to  send  a  commission  of  three  to  Paris,  to 
i^  negotiate.  Over  the  appointment  of  this 
commission  new  differences  broke  out  be- 
tween Hamilton  and  the  President.  Hamil- 
ton favored  the  appointment  of  a  Northern 
and  a  Southern  Federalist  and  of  a  Democrat 
of  the  highest  standing,  like  Madison  or  even 
Jefferson.  Adams  was  at  first  disposed  to 
make  these  appointments,  but  finally  took 
both  the  Federalists  from  the  South,  —  Pinck- 
ney  of  South  Carolina  and  John  Marshall  of 
Virginia,  —  and  selected  as  the  third  mem- 


HAMILTON  AS  A  PARTY  LEADER  123 

ber  a  Democrat  of  comparatively  minor 
standing,  Gerry  of  Massachusetts. 

The  commissioners  accomplished  little 
good  at  Paris.  They  were  insulted  and  brow- 
beaten and  told  that  only  bribery  would  se- 
cure what  they  desired.  When  their  treat- 
ment became  known  in  the  United  States, 
in  the  spring  of  1798,  there  was  a  popular 
outburst  which  restored  the  Federalists  to 
power  in  Congress  in  the  following  autumn, 
with  a  larger  majority  than  ever  before  since 
party  divisions  became  fixed.  Enthusiastic 
addresses  poured  in  upon  President  Adams, 
war  vessels  were  fitted  out  by  private  sub- 
scription, and  bills  were  carried  at  once  for 
a  provisional  army,  for  fortifications,  and 
for  the  increase  of  the  navy.  Even  under 
this  stress  of  excitement,  however,  Hamilton 
opposed  alliance  with  Great  Britain,  and  per- 
suaded Pickering,  the  Secretary  of  State,  to 
abandon  the  advocacy  of  it. 

It  was  over  the  organization  of  the  new 
army  that  the  hostility  of  Adams  to  Hamil- 
ton became  open  and  bitter.  Washington 
was  selected  as  commander-in-chief ,  but  only 


124  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

consented  to  serve  upon  the  condition  that 
he  should  have  the  choice  of  the  officers 
who  were  to  rank  next  him,  and  should 
not  be  called  upon  to  take  an  active  part 
until  the  army  took  the  field.  He  recom- 
mended to  the  President  that  rank  in  the 
Revolutionary  army  be  disregarded  and  that 
the  three  major-generals  to  be  appointed 
should  be  Hamilton,  Charles  Pinckney,  and 
Knox.  This  gave  the  practical  command 
and  the  work  of  the  organization  to  Hamil- 
ton. Adams  sent  the  names  to  the  Senate, 
in  the  order  suggested  by  Washington,  and 
they  were  promptly  confirmed.  When  he 
came  to  signing  the  commissions,  however, 
he  took  the  ground  that  Knox  was  the  senior 
officer  on  account  of  his  rank  during  the 
Revolution.  Hamilton  would  not  consent 
to  this  arrangement,  and  all  the  Federalist 
leaders,  including  members  of  the  cabinet, 
remonstrated  with  the  President  against  it. 
One  of  the  saddest  results  of  the  quarrel 
was  the  alienation  from  Hamilton  of  Knox, 
who  had  been  a  friend  of  many  years  and 
when  Secretary  of  War  in  Washington's 


HAMILTON  AS  A  PARTY  LEADER    125 

first  cabinet  had  stood  loyally  by  Hamilton 
against  Jefferson  in  the  controversy  over 
the  financial  projects. 

Adams  at  first  seemed  to  grow  more  stub- 
born with  the  protests  which  were  made 
against  his  action.  The  leaders  finally 
turned  to  Washington.  The  latter  informed 
the  President  that  if  the  original  agreement 
as  to  the  rank  of  the  officers  was  not  kept, 
he  should  resign.  Adams,  with  all  his  stub- 
bornness and  bravery,  did  not  dare  defy 
the  country  by  forcing  Washington  from 
the  service.  He  gave  way,  and  appointed 
Hamilton  to  the  first  place,  but  the  good 
feeling  which  might  have  been  promoted  if 
he  had  done  so  at  first  was  replaced  on 
both  sides  by  bitterness  w^iich  was  never 
softened. 

Hamilton,  as  the  practical  head  of  the 
army,  showed  the  same  abounding  energy  and 
capacity  for  organization  which  he  had  shown 
at  the  head  of  the  Treasury.  He  drafted  a 
plan  for  the  fortification  of  New  York  harbor, 
made  an  apportionment  of  officers  and  men 
among  the  states,  and  drew  up  projects  for 


126  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

the  organization  of  the  new  army,  dealing 
with  the  questions  of  pay,  uniforms,  rations, 
promotions,  police  in  garrisons  and  camps, 
and  the  many  other  branches  of  the  service. 
All  these  projects  received  the  cordial  ap- 
proval of  Washington.  When  Congress 
met,  Hamilton  was  ready  with  a  bill  putting 
the  army  upon  a  basis  which  would  permit 
its  increase  or  diminution  in  future  without 
changing  the  form  of  the  organization.  In 
the  spring  of  1799  he  was  providing  for  the 
defense  of  the  frontiers  and  planning  the 
invasion  of  Louisiana  and  the  Floridas. 

The  projects  of  these  invasions  of  Spanish 
territory  justify  a  reference  to  the  continen- 
tal policy  of  Hamilton.  He  was  among  the 
first  to  maintain  that  the  United  States 
should  have  complete  control  of  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  even  during  his  short 
term  in  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation 
the  last  resolution  which  he  presented  de- 
clared the  "  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  to 
be  a  clear  and  essential  right  and  to  be  sup- 
ported as  such."  It  was  left  for  Jefferson, 
Hamilton's  great  opponent,  to  carry  out  his 


HAMILTON  AS  A  PARTY  LEADER    127 

conception  of  the  acquisition  of  the  Missis- 
sippi valley  by  the  purchase  of  Louisiana. 
The  admirers  of  Hamilton  credit  him  with 
a  still  wider  vision  of  the  future  power  of 
the  United  States,  which  was  eventually  to 
bear  fruit  in  the  Monroe  doctrine  and  in  the 
celebrated  declaration  of  Secretary  Olney 
in  1895,  that  "  to-day  the  United  States  is 
practically  sovereign  on  this  continent,  and 
its  fiat  is  law  upon  the  subjects  to  which  it 
confines  its  interposition."  Hamilton  wrote 
in  "The  Federalist,"  before  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution,  that  "  our  situation  invites 
and  our  situation  prompts  us  to  aim  at  an 
ascendant  in  American  affairs." 

The  firm  attitude  of  the  United  States 
towards  France  had  its  effect  at  Paris. 
Talleyrand  sent  an  intimation  indirectly  to 
President  Adams  that  the  French  govern- 
ment would  be  glad  to  receive  an  American 
envoy.  Again  the  impetuosity  of  Adams 
divided  his  party  and  intensified  his  quarrel 
with  the  leaders  who  stood  around  Hamil- 
ton. The  name  of  Vans  Murray  was  sent 
to  the  Senate  by  the  President  for  Minister 


128  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

to  France,  without  even  consulting  the  cab- 
inet. Many  doubted  the  wisdom  of  snap- 
ping up  so  promptly  the  offer  made  by  Tal- 
leyrand, and  more  were  incensed  at  the 
President's  method  of  doing  it.  There  was 
at  first  a  strong  disposition  among  the  Fed- 
eralist leaders  to  defeat  the  nomination  in 
the  Senate.  Hamilton,  however,  checked 
the  indignation  of  his  friends  and  suggested 
a  way  out  of  the  difficulty  by  appointing  a 
strong  commission. 

The  downfall  of  the  Federal  party  and  the 
retirement  of  Hamilton  from  the  active  con- 
trol  of  national  policy  were  at  hand.  The 
passage  of  the  alien  and  sedition  laws,  arro- 
gating to  the  federal  government  intoler- 
able  powers  of  interference  with  the  rights 
of  the  press  and  of  free  speech,  was  one  of 
the  causes  contributing  to  the  revulsion  of 
feeling  in  favor  of  the  party  of  Jefferson. 
Hamilton  opposed  the  first  drafts  of  these 
laws  as  cruel,  violent,  and  tyrannical,  but  he 
did  not  disapprove  their  final  form.  The 
Federalists  carried  the  congressional  elec- 
tions of  1798,  under  the  impulse  of  the 


HAMILTON  AS  A  PARTY  LEADER    129 

feeling  against  France,  but  began  to  lose 
ground  soon  after.  As  the  presidential  elec- 
tion of  1800  approached,  a  desperate  struggle 
was  made  to  hold  New  York  for  Federalism 
as  the  only  hope  of  defeating  Jefferson  and 
reflecting  Adams.  The  New  York  election 
went  against  the  administration,  and  Ham- 
ilton pleaded  in  vain  with  Governor  Jay  to 
defeat  the  will  of  the  people  by  calling  the 
old  legislature  together  and  giving  the  choice 
of  presidential  electors  to  the  congressional 
districts.  It  was  perhaps  the  most  discred- 
itable proposal  which  ever  came  from  Hamil- 
ton, and  was  promptly  rejected  by  Jay. 

Hamilton's  motive  was  a  sincere  fear  that 
the  country  would  go  to  ruin  and  the  Consti- 
tution be  endangered  by  the  triumph  of  the 
political  school  of  Jefferson.  This  might 
have  been  the  case  if  it  had  been  the  first 
election  under  the  Constitution,  but  Hamil- 
ton himself  had  builded  better  than  he  knew. 
The  financial  projects,  the  national  bank,  the 
suppression  of  the  "  Whiskey  Insurrection," 
and  the  other  measures  taken  under  Wash- 
ington and  Adams  had  built  up  a  Federal 


130  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

Union,  whose  strength  could  not  be  seri- 
ously shaken  by  the  transfer  of  power  from 
one  party  to  another. 

With  the  shadow  of  defeat  hanging  over 
them,  the  course  of  the  Federalist  leaders 
seemed  to  justify  the  maxim,  "  Whom  the 
gods  destroy  they  first  make  mad."  With 
the  utmost  need  for  harmony  and  unity, 
quarrels  broke  out  which  would  have  wrecked 
the  party  even  if  there  had  been  otherwise 
some  prospect  of  its  success.  Adams  drove 
McHenry  and  Pickering  from  his  cabinet 
because  they  had  betrayed  his  secrets  to 
Hamilton,  and  denounced  Hamilton  and 
his  friends  as  a  British  faction.  Hamilton 
asked  in  writing  for  a  denial  or  explanation 
of  the  charge,  but  was  treated  with  contemp- 
tuous silence.  As  the  presidential  election 
approached,  Hamilton  scarcely  concealed  his 
preference  for  Pinckney,  who  was  again  to  be 
voted  for  by  the  electors  along  with  Adams. 
Hamilton  had  been  so  badly  treated  by  the 
President  that  he  announced  his  purpose  to 
prepare  a  pamphlet,  exposing  the  failings  of 
Adams  and  vindicating  his  own  position. 


HAMILTON  AS  A  PARTY  LEADER    131 

His  best  friends  stood  aghast  at  the  project 
and  labored  with  him  to  abandon  it.  Ham- 
ilton persevered,  however,  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  pamphlet.  He  denounced  Adams 
as  a  man  of  disgusting  egotism,  intense  jeal- 
ousy, and  ungovernable  temper,  and  reviewed 
in  a  scathing  manner  his  entire  public  career, 
and  especially  the  recent  dismissal  of  the 
secretaries  who  were  friendly  to  Hamilton. 
After  all  this  criticism,  Hamilton  wound  up 
with  the  lame  conclusion  that  the  electors 
should  vote  equally  for  Adams  and  Pinck- 
ney,  in  order  to  preserve  Federal  ascendency. 
He  yielded  to  the  protests  of  his  friends  so 
far  as  to  keep  the  circulation  of  the  pam- 
phlet within  a  small  circle,  but  it  was  hardly 
off  the  press  before  a  copy  was  in  the  hands 
of  Aaron  Burr,  the  Democratic  leader  in 
New  York,  and  was  used  with  effect  against 
the  Federalist  President. 

The  downfall  of  Federalism  came  with 
the  presidential  election  of  1800.  Jefferson 
and  Burr  were  the  Democratic  candidates 
for  President  and  Vice-President.  Each 
was  voted  for  by  all  the  Democratic  electors, 


132  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

giving  them  an  equal  number  of  votes  and  a 
majority  of  the  electoral  college.  This  threw 
the  election  into  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, which  was  Federalist  but  was  com- 
pelled by  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution 
to  decide  between  the  two  leading  candi- 
dates, Jefferson  and  Burr.  Some  of  the 
Federalists  were  ready  to  stoop  to  any  means 
for  striking  at  Jefferson,  the  great  represen- 
tative of  Democratic  ideals.  If  the  Feder- 
alists in  Congress  could  have  effected  a  com- 
bination with  the  Democrats  from  states 
where  Burr  was  influential,  they  might  have 
been  able  to  elect  Burr  President  instead  of 
Jefferson.  But  the  Democrats,  even  from 
New  York,  voted  for  Jefferson,  and  it  was 
evident  that  he  must  be  chosen  or  there 
would  be  no  election.  Feeling  in  the  coun- 
try ran  high,  and  there  were  threats  of  vio- 
lence if  the  election  of  Jefferson  should  be 
defeated  by  intrigue. 

Hamilton  behaved  on  this  occasion  with 
the  high  sense  of  public  duty  which  marked 
most  of  his  acts.  Familiar  as  he  was  with 
the  unscrupulous  methods  and  doubtful  char- 


HAMILTON  AS  A  PARTY  LEADER    133 

acter  of  Burr  in  New  York  politics,  he  felt 
that  it  would  be  criminal  to  put  him  in 
office.  He  had  little  reason  to  love  Jeffer- 
son, who  had  filled  the  ears  of  Washington 
with  slurs  against  himself,  but  he  felt  that 
the  election  belonged  to  Jefferson  and  that 
his  defeat  by  a  political  intrigue  would  be  a 
greater  menace  than  his  election  to  the  sys- 
tem established  by  the  Constitution.  With 
Bayard  of  Delaware,  the  Federalist  leader 
in  the  House,  Hamilton  threw  himself 
strongly  into  the  contest  against  Burr.  His 
advice  was  not  at  first  followed.  The  Plouse 
ballotted  from  the  eleventh  to  the  sixteenth 
of  February  without  reaching  a  choice.  A 
caucus  of  the  Federalists  was  then  held ;  it 
appeared  that  Jefferson  had  given  some  as- 
surances of  a  conservative  policy  in  office, 
the  views  of  Hamilton  and  Bayard  prevailed, 
and  on  February  17,  1801,  the  Federalist 
members  from  several  states  withheld  their 
votes,  and  Jefferson  was  elected. 

The  retirement  of  the  Federalists  from 
power  substantially  ended  the  public  ser- 
vices of  Hamilton.  He  continued  to  watch 


134  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

public  events  with  interest  during  the  re- 
maining five  years  of  his  life,  and  to  be  re- 
garded as  the  leader  of  the  Federalist  party, 
but  the  party  had  shrunk  to  a  corporal's 
guard  hi  Congress  and  the  long  reign  of  the 
Democratic  party  had  begun,  which  was  to 
be  interrupted  during  only  two  presidential 
terms  until  the  election  of  Lincoln  in  1860. 
Hamilton,  therefore,  at  the  age  of  forty- 
three,  had  completed  his  constructive  work 
and  ceased  to  influence  public  affairs  except 
L*l  by  his  writings  and  speeches.  It  might  al- 
|  most  be  said  that  this  work  was  done  with 
j  the  close  of  the  administration  of  Washing- 
ton in  1797,  and  that  his  great  fame  would 
have  shone  with  brighter  lustre  if  he  had  not 
|  lived  to  take  part  in  the  later  differences  and 
quarrels  of  the  Adams  administration.  His 
life  was  not  without  service,  however,  under 
Adams,  since  his  influence  over  members  of 
the  cabinet  several  times  restrained  rash 
policies,  and  between  the  conflicting  passions 
of  the  champions  of  France  and  of  the 
friends  of  Great  Britain,  kept  the  ship  'of 
state  steady  upon  a  safe  course. 


VIII 

/  HAMILTON'S  DEATH  AND  CHARACTER 

THE  death  of  Hamilton  was  in  a  peculiar 
sense  a  part  of  his  public  career.  He  had 
never  hesitated  to  denounce  in  strong  terms 
-  the  public  career  and  some  of  the  private  s 
acts  of  Aaron  Burr.  The  latter,  after  los- 
ing the  presidency,  sought  the  governorship 
of  New  York,  and  entered  into  correspond- 
ence with  the  Federalist  leaders  in  New 
England  with  a  view  to  the  formation  of  a 
Northern  confederacy.  Hamilton  succeeded  > 
in  dividing  the  Federalist  vote  in  New  York 
so  as  to  give  the  election  to  Lewis,  Burr's 
democratic  rival.  Burr  then  determined  to 
force  a  personal  quarrel  upon  Hamilton  in 
order  to  obtain  revenge  upon  the  man  who 
had  so  often  thwarted  him.  Hamilton  had 
no  desire  to  fight,  but  he  did  not  feel  able  to  ^ 
repudiate  the  code  of  the  duelist  as  it  was 
then  accepted  among  gentlemen. 


136  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

It  was  on  June  17,  1804,  that  Colonel 
Burr,  through  his  intimate  friend  Judge 
Van  Ness,  demanded  an  apology  for  a  criti- 
cism by  Hamilton  which  had  reached  Burr's 
ears.  Several  letters  were  exchanged  before 
it  -became  plain  that  Burr  was  bound  to 
force  a  quarrel  or  to  humiliate  Hamilton 
to  a  point  which  he  knew  would  not  be  en- 
dured. When  Burr's  true  purpose  became 
plain  to  Hamilton,  he  requested  a  short  time 
to  close  up  several  important  cases  for  his 
clients,  which  were  then  pending  in  the  cir- 
cuit court.  The  circuit  having  terminated, 
Colonel  Burr  was  informed  (Friday,  July  6, 
1804)  that  Hamilton  would  be  ready  to 
meet  him  at  any  time  after  the  following 
Sunday.  Both  men  realized  that  the  meet- 
ing might  be  fatal,  and  prepared  for  it  in 
a  characteristic  way.  Burr,  who  because  of 
his  fascinating  manners  was  a  great  favorite 
with  women,  destroyed  the  compromising  let- 
ters which  he  had  received  and  devoted  his 
spare  hours  to  pistol  practice.  Hamilton 
had  fewer  such  letters  to  destroy,  and  was 
determined  not  to  kill  Burr  if  it  could  be 


HAMILTON'S  DEATH  137 

avoided.  He  drew  up  his  will,  and  prepared 
a  statement  of  his  reasons  for  fighting.  This 
statement  set  forth  that  he  was  opposed  to 
the  practice  of  dueling  and  had  done  all 
that  was  practicable,  even  beyond  the  de- 
mands of  a  punctilious  delicacy,  to  secure  an 
accommodation.  He  then  said :  — 

"  I  have  resolved,  if  our  interview  is  con- 
ducted in  the  usual  manner,  and  it  pleases 
God  to  give  me  the  opportunity,  to  reserve 
and  throw  away  my  first  fire ;  and  I  have 
thought  even  of  reserving  my  second,  and 
thus  giving  a  double  opportunity  to  Colonel 
Burr  to  pause  and  repent." 

The  arrangements  for  the  duel  were  made 
on  Monday,  and  on  the  following  Wednes- 
day (July  11)  the  meeting  took  place  at 
seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  at  Weehawken, 
three  miles  above  Hoboken,  on  the  west 
shore  of  the  Hudson.  Burr  and  Hamilton 
exchanged  salutations,  the  seconds  measured 
the  distance,  which  was  ten  paces,  and  the 
parties  took  their  respective  stations.  At 
the  first  word,  Burr  fired.  Hamilton's 
weapon  was  discharged  in  the  air,  and  he 


138  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

almost  instantly  fell,  mortally  wounded. 
The  ball  struck  the  second  or  third  false  rib, 
fractured  it  about  the  middle,  passed  through 
the  liver  and  diaphragm,  and  lodged  in  the 
first  or  second  lumbar  vertebra.  Hamilton 
was  at  first  thought  to  be  dead,  but  he  re- 
vived when  put  on  board  the  boat  which  was 
in  waiting,  and  was  able  to  utter  a  few  words 
as  he  was  borne  towards  his  home.  He  died 
on  the  day  after  the  meeting  at  two  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon.  Jlven  in  «his  death  he  ren- 
dered a  parting  service  jbol  his  countrymen, 
by  the  revulsion  of  f eeliig/  which  was  every-  • 
where  aroused  agaiijst  tfye-  practice  of  duel- 
ing. The  news  of 'his  premature  taking 
off  caused  a  waVe  of  vgriqf  and  indignation 
to  spread  over  the  ••  country,  differing  from 
the  chastened  sorrow,  felt*  over  the  death  of 
Washington,  because  Washington  had  met 
his  end  full  of  years  and  honors,  and  in  the 
natural  order  of  nature. 

The  concluding  statement  made  by  Hamil- 
ton in  the  paper  which  -he  left  regarding  his 
me.eting  with  Burf  §jivj£s  some  clue  to  his 
reasons  for  fighting.  This  paragraph  ran  as 
follows :  — 


HAMILTON'S  DEATH  139 

"To  those  who,  with  me,  abhorring  the 
practice  of  dueling,  may  think  that  I  ought 
on  no  account  to  have  added  to  the  number 
of  bad  examples,  I  answer  that  my;  relative 
situation,  as  well  in  public  as  ^private,  en- 
forcing all  the  considerations  which  consti- 
tute what  men  of  the  world  denominate 
honor,  imposed  on  me  (as  I  thought),  a 
peculiar  necessity  not  to  decline  the  c&ll. 
The  ability  to  be  in  future  useful,  whether 
in  resisting  mischief  or  effecting  goodf ;  in 
those  crises  of  our  public  affairs  which  seem 
likely  to  happen  would  probably  be  insepa- 
rable from  a  conformity  with  public  preju- 
dice in  this  particular." 

This  statement  has  been  construed  to 
mean  that  Hamilton  looked  forward  to 'the 
time  when  the  Constitution  would*  be  as- 
sailed by  extremists  and  he  would  be  called 
by  events  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a 
movement  for  a  stronger  government,  and 
perhaps  even  to  lead  an  army.  Several 
passages  in  his  writings,  especially*  after  the 
downfall  of  the  Federalists,  gave  color  to 
the  view  that  he  feared  an  outbreak  of  Ja- 


140  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

cobin  violence  in  America,  and  the  failure  of 
the  Constitution  in  such  an  event  to  resist 
the  strain  which  would  be  put  upon  it.  In  a 
letter  to  Gouverneur  Morris  (February  27, 
1802),  he  drops  into  the  following  gloomy 
forebodings :  — 

"  Mine  is  an  odd  destiny.  Perhaps  no 
man  in  the  United  States  has  sacrificed  or 
done  more  for  the  present  Constitution  than 
myself ;  and,  contrary  to  all  my  anticipa- 
tions of  its  fate,  as  you  know,  from  the  very 
beginning,  I  am  still  laboring  to  prop  the 
frail  and  worthless  fabric.  Yet  I  have 
the  murmurs  of  its  friends  no  less  than  the 
curses  of  its  foes  for  my  reward.  What 
can  I  do  better  than  withdraw  from  the 
scene  ?  Every  day  proves  to  me  more  and 
more  that  this  American  world  was  not 
made  for  me." 

This  mood  of  despondency  was  not  the 
usual  mood  of  Hamilton.  Much  as  he  ab- 
horred the  sympathy  with  France  shown  by 
the  Democrats  and  the  tendency  towards 
French  ideas,  his  habitual  temper  was  for 
combination  and  action  rather  than  surren- 


HAMILTON'S  DEATH  ^141 

der.  During  the  three  years  which  followed 
the  inauguration  of  Jefferson,  he  continued, 
though  busy  with  his  law  practice,  to  keep 
up  in  private  life  an  active  correspondence 
with  Federalist  leaders  throughout  the  coun- 
try, and  to  advise  earnest  efforts  to  defeat 
Democratic  policies.  Only  the  day  before 
the  duel,  in  a  letter  to  Sedgwick  of  Massa- 
chusetts, he  indirectly  condemned  a  project 
which  was  on  foot  for  a  combination  of  the 
Northern  States  into  a  separate  confederacy. 
He  said  that  "  dismemberment  of  our  em- 
pire will  be  a  clear  sacrifice  of  great  positive 
advantages  without  any  counterbalancing 
good,  administering  no  relief  to  our  real 
disease,  which  is  Democracy." 

Hamilton  had  fears  for  the  future  of  the 
Union  under  the  Constitution  which  were 
much  exaggerated  by  his  leanings  towards 
a  strong,  self-centred  government  like  that 
of  Great  Britain.  It  is  not  unreasonable  to 
believe  that  he  felt  that  he  might  again  be 
called  upon  to  play  a  great  part  in  politics 
as  the  leader  of  his  party,  and  that  under 
the  prejudices  then  prevailing  he  would 


142  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

weaken  his  personal  influence  if  he  refused 
a  challenge.  The  public  man  of  that  day 
who  could  be  charged  with  cowardice  or  lack 
of  regard  for  his  personal  honor  would  suffer 
much  with  the  masses,  if  not  with  the  party 
leaders,  who  understood  his  character  and 
abilities.  Hamilton  hardly  needed  to  prove 
his  personal  courage  to  any  reasonable  man 
after  his  services  in  the  Revolution,  includ- 
ing his  reckless  charge  upon  the  redoubt  at 
Yorktown,  but  political  foes  might  forget 
these  evidences  of  his  character  if  he  should 
tamely  submit  to  insult  from  a  political  op- 
ponent. It  is  doubtful  whether  his  purpose 
in  meeting  Burr  went  beyond  this  submis- 
sion to  the  general  prejudice  in  favor  of 
dueling  and  the  belief  on  his  part  that  his 
position  as  a  gentleman  and  a  political 
leader  required  him  to  accept  the  challenge. 
The  high  abilities  and  great  services  of 
Hamilton  to  the  new  Union  have  been  suf- 
ficiently set  forth  in  these  pages  to  make  un- 
necessary any  elaborate  estimate  of  his  char- 
acter and  attainments.  His  essential  merit 
was  that  of  a  constructive  and  organizing 


HAMILTON'S  DEATH  143 

mind,  which  saw  the  opportunity  for  action 
and  was  equal  to  the  opportunity.  Hamil- 
ton was  governed  to  a  large  extent  by  Ids 
intellect,  but  having  reasoned  out  a  proposi- 
tion to  be  sound  and  wise,  he  rode  resolutely 
to  its  accomplishment,  taking  little  account 
of  the  obstacles  in  the  way.  He  was  not  a 
closet  philosopher,  pursuing  abstract  propo- 
sitions to  their  sources,  and  searching,  through 
the  discordant  threads  of  human  destiny,  the 
ultimate  principles  of  all  things ;  but  his 
mind  was  keen  and  alert  in  seizing  upon 
reasoning  which  seemed  obviously  sound, 
laboring  in  behalf  of  his  convictions,  and 
presenting  them  with  force  and  simplicity  to 
others.  He  found  the  career  for  which  he 
was  preeminently  fitted  in  the  organization 
of  the  financial  system  and  the  consolidation 
of  the  Union,  under  the  first  administration 
of  Washington.  He  was  less  fitted  for  the 
career  of  a  politician  in  times  less  strenuous, 
or  when  tact  and  finesse  were  more  useful  in 
securing  results  than  -^ar^jrgagomng^^nd 
strong  argument. 

Hamilton  was  cut  off  when  he  had  only 


1M  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

recently  resumed  his  professional  career,  but 
was  making  a  distinguished  record  at  the 
bar.  Always  a  great  lawyer,  he  would  soon 
have  accumulated  a  fortune  if  he  had  lived 
amid  the  tempting  opportunities  of  to-day. 
As  it  was,  his  legal  fees  were  modest  and 
his  sudden  death  left  large  debts.  He  be- 
queathed the  request  to  his  sons  that  they 
should  assume  these  debts  if  his  estate  was 
insufficient,  but  the  gratitude  of  some  of  the 
wealthy  Federalists  relieved  theih  of  this 
filial  obligation.  Hamilton  had  six  sons,  but 
most  of  them  were  already  approaching  a 
self-supporting  age  when  he  died.  His  oldest 
son  had  fallen  a  victim  to  the  barbarous 
practice  of  dueling  in  a  petty  quarrel  at  a 
theatre  three  years  before  the  father's  death. 
The  fourth  son,  Mr.  John  C.  Hamilton,  gave 
much  time  to  the  study  of  his  father's  career, 
and  prepared  the  Life  of  Hamilton  which 
has  been  the  source  of  the  later  work  of 
historians.  Hamilton's  widow,  the  daughter 

of  General  Schuyler,  survived  until  1854, 

i  s  u  u 
when  she  died  at  the  age  of  ninety-seven 

years  and  three  months. 


HAMILTON'S  DEATH  145 

As  a  man  in  private  life,  Hamilton  was 
loved  and  respected  by  those  who  came 
closest  to  him,  but  it  was  as  much  by  the 
qualities  of  his  mind  as  by  the  special  fasci- 
nations of  his  manner.  He  commanded  the 
respect  and  support  of  most  of  the  leaders  of 
his  party,  because  they  were  great  enough  to 
grasp  and  appreciate  his  reasoning,  but  he 
was  never  the  idol  of  the  people  to  the  same 
extent  as  many  other  leaders.  He  would 
probably  have  made  a  great  career  in  what- 
ever direction  he  might  have  turned  his  high 
abilities,  but  he  was  fortunate  in  finding  an 
opportunity  for  their  exercise  in  a  crisis 
which  enabled  him  to  render  greater  services 
to  the  country  than  have  been  rendered  by 
almost  any  man  in  her  history,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Washington  and  Lincoln. 


Electrotyped  and  printed  by  H.  O.  Hougkton  6-  Co. 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.S.  A. 


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